I experienced some older model iPhones from some parts of Asia not being compatible with cellular towers here in Canada. I had to check if same thing goes for iPad and iPhones bought from North America when moving to Tokyo.
Thanks,
EDIT: forgot to add that it has to be Japanese SIM compatibility per se, not the cellular tower only. i.e. no roaming.
EDIT2: Also forgot to add this important detail. it just came to my mind that during my travel to Japan last time, someone told me the only sim I could get was the tourist’s sim. Here, I thought I was asking regarding the usage with local long-term contractual sims that provide both LTE 5G 4G alongside calls catered by large corps like SoftBank, Docomo, AU.
so in other words, will the iPad and iPhone devices work seamlessly with the service providers for long term contract, or do they want or must sell their own carrier w/ a new device contract to us foreigners.
​
Sorry for the confusion.
3 comments
Former apple technician here. Check the iPad models and see the cellular bands it has. Check an iPad model that is sold in Japan for those bands. If they match you’re fine. If it’s off, could be a problem. End of the day it comes to cellular bands for cellular iPads. If it’s phones, it’s even more important to check the cellular bands.
In my experience. I had people come in with issues from other countries since they were missing bands for major telecoms. North American particularly USA phones contained almost all bands so international travel wasn’t a big issue. Google the provider you think of using and see if they can show what bands they’re using. Or, ask someone you know using the provider you want and what the model phone.
So travel to Japan every year and never had an issue with either ipad nor iPhone. For as as long as you are using a non Japanese SIM – international calling can be a hassle but again never had an issue with connections.
EDIT – from Canada
Look up your iPad here
https://www.apple.com/ipad/cellular/networks/