Basically, I’m looking to get a new phone, or at least a new used phone, and I’ve been poking around Janpara, and I got to wondering. They have a good many different models of phones, and most of the phones are marked from specific carriers ( Docomo, Au, Softbank )
My understanding is that new phones are no longer locked to a specific carrier through there sim cards, but is there any real difference between say a Docomo model of a phone vs a Au or Rakuten one?
Specifically, I’m using Rakuten Mobile, and have been looking a Sony Aquos phones which Rakuten says are compatible in the generic sense. I couldn’t find any help on whether say a Docomo Aquos phone would be ok though. Or do I need to look for Rakuten or ‘stock’ phones only?
Can anyone help me out here?
2 comments
>Sony Aquos phones which Rakuten says are compatible in the generic sense
There’s no such thing as a Sony Aqous. It’s either Sony Xperia or Sharp Aquos.
Both makers have phones available for Rakuten, and if Rakuten says it works, then it works.
Docomo phones usually have more bands than other phones, but Rakuten uses some funky ones that may not exist on other carrier’s phones.
If you’re talking about domestic sold phone models, you should check each manufacturer’s supported bands for each model. they might not have very old stuff listed anymore, but hopefully you’re not buying something > 5 years old anyway. You’ll need working VoLTE support to get on pretty much any modern network these days.
docomo: https://www.docomo.ne.jp/binary/pdf/support/product/band.pdf
au: https://www.au.com/support/service/mobile/procedure/simcard/unlock/compatible_network/
softbank: https://cdn.softbank.jp/mobile/set/common/pdf/support/usim/unlock_procedure/frequency-band-list.pdf
(too lazy to google rakuten one, do they even have rakuten-branded phones? I thought they just resold Chinese stuff).
Anyway, all the providers have slightly different band allocation, so you can see if a device you want to buy will have overlapping bands or not and decide whether it will be useful or not.
Rakuten base stations only do Band 3 and 18/26, and iirc they roam off au when there’s no service, so you’ll want something supporting those bands + additional au bands. So maybe an au branded device?