Going to Japan - want to avoid TELSTRA charges..
Is it easy to buy good value pre-paid phones there - and what should I be looking for??
Just a sim kit / data deal would be ideal but can't speak Japanese so registering might be too hard. And working out value locally is bad enough when it comes to phone plans
Thanks
AP
If only for a short trip, shut off all data, don't make phone calls. Notify Telstra that you need International Roaming.
Text is still cheap, and receiving phones calls isn't too expensive...
Thx Si but want to be able to talk between family in Japan - experience in UK was great - eg buy phone / data (4 GB data block calls free)... approx $30.00 could have gone for lower amount - but this suited. If can get on local n/w can skype (international rates pre-paid).
BTW - my current phone is a camping special $25 including $10.00 credit!!
That situation will be resolved by then... Iphone5 or GalaxyS2 ??? fancy ANDROID but the battery life is not good.
Do not want big bill after trip!!
Will do some investigation to resolve.
Cheers
AP
Take a netbook/smartphone and a cheap light headset/mike so you can hear. Use free wifi coffee shops / maccas and use skype . $20 credit buys heaps of time. This saved us a few times in europe when we were finding wwoofing farms and calling heaps of people, where cheapest sim was $50 for 20 mins airtime or 20x 1 minute calls to mobiles!! We were sitting outside maccas in france in the street making calls, with the speaker up to your ear trying to hear... that's why you need the headset. Saved us hundreds though.
As aqua says UK is great, buy a 5 quid sim get 5 hours international or something stupid. Pity the rest of europe isn't like that.
dont know about japan but i use my global roaming capable phone and buy a sim. If you go to one of the bigger phone stores one of the staff might speak engrish?
Skype - 3 cents a minute to land lines and free between fellow skype users. Bargain. A bit more expensive when calling mobiles though - 25 cents a minute I think.
I use skype on my phone whenever I am away and call my family in NZ all the time with it -it rocks.
If you do get a smart phone you can also use things like facetime and viber as well which give u free call options as well. I find Viber a little unclear sometimes so mainly use skype instead.
