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Can anyone with Softbank keitai tell me how coverage is?

 

It is apparently getting better all the time and I have heard varying - but you can usually not really trust the extremes can you! - so I was just wondering.

 

Thanks

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By "in the mountains" do you mean up on top of them, or in the mountain towns?

 

I don't need a phone up there and in places humans hardly ever go to - just in town areas and roads.

 

Thanks

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Yeah thats right. after getting to the top of the #1 lift I had a flood of messages from my missing mate, saying that he'd rode down into Tashiro and got caught when the uploading lifts went off. He had no way to get back to Kagura except by the bus!!

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FT don't you also have AU, are you planing to change to Docomo? smile

 

From my experience working in the mountains and not just skiing, were we need to have a cell phone with, AU has the best coverage around.

The guys that come with me working and have Docomo cellphones given by their company, have only complains to make about its coverage in the mountains.

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Tsonda,

I guess your friends have docomo FOMA. Docomo MOVA is better for coverage. Docomo used to be gov. owned so they set up the antenna whereever they wanted whereas the private companies need permission, which is difficult to get for remote places (or so I heard).

FOMA is the newer, cheaper (now standard) system but it is possible to switch over to MOVA when you head into the mountains (but they you can't use email or i-mode so its a bit of a pain). When docomo finally gets rid of MOVA, they will switch all their antenna to FOMA and then their coverage will be great.

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You are right Jane, all of them had FOMA keitai's, though I am not so sure if you can just switch from FOMA to MOVA. If I get it right, FOMA is a different signal than MOVA (maybe digital or different coding). So switching to FOMA only is not just a mater of changing the transmiting frequency, but also compatibility of the Antenas. I think it involves some kind of adjustments to be able to suport the FOMA format, thats why for the time being AU is a bit better. Cant say about the future though.

 

As for getting permission to work in the mountains, unfortunately I have first hand experience. I am fighting all week over the phone about 50 x 50 cm of land to set up seismographs. If I talk to someone thats 50 years old or younger, then I finish in 10-15 mins. For any older than that, I think its better if you just bash them on the head... shifty

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