3G iPhone in Japan?

I hope they go for Softbank. Docomo is dying.

If it's CDMA, would that work on Verizon's CDMA network here?

Make sense to me.

Re: CDMA, I think there are multiple flavors, maybe someone can chime in, my guess (just a guess) would be their CDMA is different and not compatible as every iphone / mobile phone rollout I have seen shows CDMA only being in the US. (at least out flavor.)

If it's CDMA, would that work on Verizon's CDMA network here?

No. Japan CDMA network is not like our CDMA network here. I don't know all the juicy details, but Japanese and American phones aren't even close to interchangeable, and won't use the same networks.

jW

It would be nice it it would be a version of CDMA that works in the states. The only thing is that Verizon's servers wouldn't work with the Visual VoiceMail. I have a feeling that we will not see a CDMA version of the iPhone, ever. I think that I remember reading somewhere that Verizon is going to be replacing CDMA with some version of GSM in the not too distant future. We will just have to wait and see.

Christopher

Re: CDMA, I think there are multiple flavors, maybe someone can chime in, my guess (just a guess) would be their CDMA is different and not compatible as every iphone / mobile phone rollout I have seen shows CDMA only being in the US. (at least out flavor.)

From my understanding, the big difference between the Japanese CDMA and Verizon is that Verizon is operating at a significantly slower speed and data is handled somewhat differently. I THINK (and don't quote me on it, and don't get mad if I'm wrong) that something released in the US would have an easier time being transitioned for Japanese use than the opposite way, perhaps with minimal effort. For bring something from Japan would be futile and would require a pretty thorough overhaul of the device. I think.

An entire country with no EDGE and only 3G coverage? What a beautiful thought!

From my understanding, the big difference between the Japanese CDMA and Verizon is that Verizon is operating at a significantly slower speed and data is handled somewhat differently.

Nope, the only difference between Japanese and American CDMA is that the RF channels are reverse (our uplink channel is their downlink channel and vice versa)--- thus phones are incompatible.

I hope they go for Softbank. Docomo is dying.

All the news about Softbank winning the most number of subscribers are just simple accounting tricks. Both DoCoMo and KDDI use 3 months inactivity as the standard to kill off the inactive subscribers from their accounting books. Softbank keeps inactive subscribers for 12 months on their accounting books.

http://wirelesswatch.jp/2006/12/06/softbank-mobile-subscriber-stats/

The only carrier that is in good shape in Japan is KDDI.

Japan uses Several 3G systems, including W-CDMA and CDMA2000. W-CDMA is the underlining technology for GSM 3G, usually UTMS (which is what at&t Mobility 3G is) however NTT's FOMA uses a different wrapper than UTMS (HSUPA/HSDPA). CDMA2000 is commonly known in the US as EV-DO, which is the 3G version of CDMA. With any luck the iPhone 3G will use W-CDMA since it is most likely going to be the world-wide standard for 3G. It will also be a very small hardware change to use the 3G iPhone in Japan (perhaps the hardware will be in all versions to allow for operation in Japan for roming.)

TEG

Although the Japanese iPhone, as said earlier, won't work on US networks, a version of this iPhone could be released in Canada. With Rogers being the only GSM network in Canada Apple has not had a lot of leverage in getting the terms they want. A CDMA phone, now mass produced for the Japanese market, would give Apple two other major providers, Telus and Bell, with whom to negotiate with. This could either pressure Rogers into accepting Apples terms for the GSM iPhone, or Telus or Bell would have a crack at a CDMA iPhone. Either way Apple wins.