Japan's NTT DoCoMo to go SIM-free in 2011

By on Jul 6, 2010 at 11:40 AM
General July 6, 2010

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In an interview with the Nikkei Business Daily, NTT DoCoMo’s president Ryuji Yamada revealed that Japans’s largest wireless carrier may go SIM-Free in 2011. The move would allow customers to easily switch to and from NTT DoCoMo by merely swapping out a SIM. With its quality network, and soon-to-be unlocked handsets, NTT DoCoMo is hoping to snag customers from rival Softbank which has a slight competitive advantage over its larger rival by being the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in Japan. The Nikkei responded favorably to this news with shares of NTT DoCoMo up a moderate 1.68% at the writing of this post.

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22 Comments

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  • JohnH

    This sounds more like unlocked phones than SIM-less phones. Perhaps SIM-free means something different in Japan than conventional English would imply.

  • Erin

    Yeah, confusing. Last I checked the BGR was in English and not Japanese.

    • LocoDave

      It’s Engrish…

  • sean.

    @JohnH,

    yeah I was thinking the same thing…”sim-free” then they talk about swapping sim cards, quite confusing.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: La Porte City Americas

  • Xman

    Maybe they meant SIM-Unlocked…

  • Andrew Munchbach

    To refer to something as SIM-free does not mean “without sim” it means “not SIM locked.” Hope that helps :)

    • Stephen

      No, SIM-free means “no sim” in English.

    • http://www.innopath.com Jason Lackey

      Andrew – I think that Europeans would probably be more likely to understand “SIM-free”, while most in the US are likely to be confused by the term but those into mobile devices would likely readily understand “unlocked”. I think that the term “SIM-free” is an artifact of Carphone Warehouse or someone in Europe selling unsubsidized, unbranded devices that did not come with a carrier’s SIM, thus rendering them “SIM-free” devices.

      • el3ktro

        I am from Europe, Germany to be precise, and for me ‘SIM-free’ means ‘without a SIM card’. My first thought was that Docomo would somehow get rid of SIM cards and use another technique to associate a phone, a customer and a phone number.

        A phone without a lock to a specific SIM card is simply called ‘unlocked’, but never ‘SIM-free’.

  • Chirag

    Who cares?

  • Jeremiah

    It really is just confusing using “SIM-free” when you mean to say that their handsets will be unlocked from now on. It’s like how “handsfree” means you’re not using your hands. “SIM-unlocked” would be a much more appropriate and precise term.

  • dook

    Someone correct me if I’m wrong (it’s been a while since I lived in Japan), but to my recollection, none of the carriers there actually use sim cards? I was under the impression that the 3 major cellular providers were CDMA?

    • NuShrike

      Yes, you’re right and wrong. When moving up from 2G, DoCoMo started up the 3G standardization process of W-CDMA in Europe which is now known as UMTS aka, 3G for the rest of us. Since DoCoMo was first, their FOMA pre-dates UMTS standardization so FOMO has some incompatible features. However it is still UMTS 3G.

      At the same time, they invested in old-AT&T to deploy this 3G in NA, and that was the failed UMTS effort. Cingular restarted it somewhere around 3-years before the iPhone when the “new” “3G-compatible” sims started getting distributed.

      Meanwhile, Softbank (aka JPhone aka Vodaphone) also jumped on the UMTS wagon as well as E-Mobile. Softbank is the only company that allows SIM-only rentals to use on their network.

  • James

    I don’t remember Softbank overtaking NTT DoCoMo…last I remember it was NTT DoCoMo> KDDI > SoftBank….

    • Baester

      Softbank has to be bigger than KDDI… AU was struggling when I was living in Tokyo.

  • Cliff

    You should really change the way that’s worded. Doesn’t make much sense as is, what’s wrong with SIM unlocked?

    • LocoDave

      I agree – i thought that Verizon and Sprint (most models anyway) were SIM-free? Because they don’t have a SIM inside. This should read “Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to go SIM-unlocked in 2011″

  • http://justskate.me netposer

    According to this then ATT and T-Mobile are also SIM-Free?

    Maybe “Carrier-Free” would be a better term?

    I’m confused and my engrish is not that good.

  • http://yahoo franky

    all you panzies talk to much just let the story go the way the writer intended….this story is like cheese to a mouse….the story is the cheese and all you bloggers are the dummies….you guys always fall for the bait…when you guys become famous for something than you can probably say something but for now keep your stupid comments to your selves..posers

    • Andrew

      oh good, hopefully I can get incoming 3g now and have more choices other than software unlocked nec, as much as I like nec, I wouldnt mind a fujitsu or another sharp thats unlocked and not using a hypersim

  • http://alghienkad06.student.ipb.ac.id/ thea

    like unlocked phones than SIM-less

  • Anmol Jain

    How much will SIM-free iphone4S cost in japan??

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