Which cell phone carrier / plan suits my needs?

[jns4chat]

I am staying in Kagoshima, Japan for 10 months and I am planning to get a cell phone. Back home, I rarely make calls (I email people instead) but I believe that I could be sending and receiving quite a lot of text messages here in Japan (what's the difference between text messages and phone mail in terms of charges and whatnot?) I've taken a look at Softbank's White Plan and Prepaid Plan and do not yet know which one (or any other from other carriers) would best serve my purposes. All the other international students have computers so we would probably email one another unless we need to urgently get hold of one another. So I guess I would only be sending messages.

I am looking for a plan that is as cheap as it could get (limited finances, you know). I just need a number to allow people to get hold of me and something to occasionally send messages from. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!


Jenny

[markystar]

ummmm, for those prices i don't think it's possible.

i'm paying about 5000-7000 a month and that's the cheapest i've ever gotten. i'm a heavy internet user tho. with my previous provider, i was averaging 10,200-15,000.

btw - i rarely make calls.


i was just at the softbank shop the other day and noticed the White Plan has a Student Discount, so that's probably the cheapest thing going. but i haven't really looked into it.

hope this helps!

[CSkau]

In second what markystar on that - those prices are way too low !

I didn't check much on the prices when I bought my DoCoMo phone and honestly I didn't really care too much at the time.
I bought an expensive phone ( ~55,000 yen ) and signed up for a plan somewhere around 7,000 - 10,000 yen a month.
Since I lived far out way up in the mountains I signed up for a full phone/msg plan plus internet modem for my laptop ( through the phone ).
After barely using my phone for much more than a few messages and checking my email on my laptop once or thrice I decided I probably should downgrade to save a bit of money though.
However, even after quitting the most expensive features I still ended up paying around 5,000 yen a month.

To be honest I am really surprised at how much the Japanese apparently have to pay for their phone subscriptions.
( For comparison I pay around 500 - 1,000 yen a month for my Danish phone subscription. )

I don't regret signing up for my phone though - a keitai is an absolute necessity in Japan !
I absolutely love my phone, and my mother did sleep better at night knowing she could always get a hold of me even If her son was all the way across the world.

Best of luck !

/Clement

PS: I found DoCoMo's international help line very useful and always helpful. This is absolutely priceless when you live too far from the nearest shop to go there just any time you need something - they even rearranged my subscription plan over the phone !