Does the iPhone work in Japan? How much are roaming fees?

Factual Questions
1

I’ll be leaving the US for Japan tomorrow. I’m curious if my iPhone will work in Japan, and if so, how much I might expect to pay per call (say one that’s a minute long)?

2

I can’t vouch for cost of calls, but any 3G phone should work ok.

3

Mine didn’t, but it should have. I assume it was related to my setup, not the phone itself as other identical phones worked. Call your provider and make sure they don’t need to enable anything.

4

Call AT&T. You’re going to need an international calling plan of some sort.

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/iphone-travel-tips.jsp

5

Beware - data roaming fees are OUTRAGEOUS. I checked my email and the weather a few times when I travel, and the data fees regularly add up to $10, $20 bucks. There’s a switch in setup to turn off international data roaming. Use it.

6

I’ve been wondering this question as well. Keep us updated!

And it’s turned off by default, and there’s a warning about the expense of data roaming right on the screen next to the switch. I think they’re serious.

Anyone know whether there are data roaming plans that will cut those fees?

7

Story from a couple of years ago (from memory): dude in the UK got a free 3G movie download every month - a few gig - to his cellphone. The start of the month came, he kicked off the download, which took several days to come in, didn’t realise it was still downloading, and went to Germany on business, where his download was not only no longer free, but also subject to data roaming charges.

His bill for that month was £70,000.

The provider waived the fee in the end, but it’s illustrative of how punitive (and IMO ridiculous) the charges can be.

8

I found this tool from AT&T to tell you about compatibility, rates, etc.

9

It’s not just Japan. I emailed about a half dozen pictures to my wife from Canada, and the charge was $200.

10

Are iPhones WiFi enabled? My (non-iPhone) 3G phone is and my workaround overseas was to find free WiFi hotspots (not too hard IME) and disable the 3G while enabling WiFi.

11

Current iPhones are. There are rumours of a China-only model that will not have WiFi.

12

I was just in Japan a few weeks ago, and my dad (American) was using his iPhone.

I can’t say more than that.