Just some comments from someone who lived in Japan for 3 years.
Yes it costs a lot to get a land line. A major consideration is that you own that number. You're not just buying service.
All calls do cost. I was there from 7/1995 - 7/1998, at the time 3 minutes were 10 yen. After 11pm you got 4 minutes.
So I don't see daddy calling NTT for a second phone line for the KID, like often happens here in The States.
Luckily the Board of Education owned the number and just changed the billing responsibilities over to me. But my monthly phone bill was USD100.00 - 200.00 per month.
This very seldom include any International calls. I used the internet via a BOE account ( so I only paid for the phone call ) and used IRC-chat to communicate with friends instead of calling.
The article mentions business men using the phones but that isn't their main customer. It is the young people. They get spending money like you wouldn't believe. They can't go and sign up for the phones on their own ( unless the law has changed ). Also many schools ( at least through junior high where I taught ) have rules against the kids even bringing phones or pagers into school. I've seen them confiscated from the students.
And what they offer as after-market accessories makes our stores look pathetic. People there don't carry around big key rings with interesting nick-nacks hanging off them, thats what their cell phone is for. And everyone can see it while you are either talking to someone or getting gamer's thumb from entering those little messages to everyone and their brother.
I did have a cell phone while I was there. At the time I had 3 types to choose from. Cellular, PHS and Portable. The cellular and portable were had stronger signals and could be used while in a car or train but the band width if you connected it to a computer was only 9.6K. On the other hand the PHS was not as strong. You lost signal if someone were driving over 40kph. But the bandwidth was 32K. I used it for checking email and a very little surfing when not in class teaching. It was a very nice little phone that connected via a pcmcia card modem.
Topic Jump:
Diverging to a comment made in another message: That Americans don't like getting charged for phone calls, and that its Stupid. If you haven't seen "The Minority Report" yet take that to heart. I can see getting video adds from the book store, grociery store, oil change shop etc. I through away junk mail. But I don't pay a fee to take it out of the box first.
Slashdot Mirror
Just some comments from someone who lived in Japan for 3 years.
Yes it costs a lot to get a land line. A major consideration is that you own that number. You're not just buying service.
All calls do cost. I was there from 7/1995 - 7/1998, at the time 3 minutes were 10 yen. After 11pm you got 4 minutes.
So I don't see daddy calling NTT for a second phone line for the KID, like often happens here in The States.
Luckily the Board of Education owned the number and just changed the billing responsibilities over to me. But my monthly phone bill was USD100.00 - 200.00 per month.
This very seldom include any International calls. I used the internet via a BOE account ( so I only paid for the phone call ) and used IRC-chat to communicate with friends instead of calling.
The article mentions business men using the phones but that isn't their main customer. It is the young people. They get spending money like you wouldn't believe. They can't go and sign up for the phones on their own ( unless the law has changed ). Also many schools ( at least through junior high where I taught ) have rules against the kids even bringing phones or pagers into school. I've seen them confiscated from the students.
And what they offer as after-market accessories makes our stores look pathetic. People there don't carry around big key rings with interesting nick-nacks hanging off them, thats what their cell phone is for. And everyone can see it while you are either talking to someone or getting gamer's thumb from entering those little messages to everyone and their brother.
I did have a cell phone while I was there. At the time I had 3 types to choose from. Cellular, PHS and Portable. The cellular and portable were had stronger signals and could be used while in a car or train but the band width if you connected it to a computer was only 9.6K. On the other hand the PHS was not as strong. You lost signal if someone were driving over 40kph. But the bandwidth was 32K. I used it for checking email and a very little surfing when not in class teaching. It was a very nice little phone that connected via a pcmcia card modem.
Topic Jump:
Diverging to a comment made in another message: That Americans don't like getting charged for phone calls, and that its Stupid. If you haven't seen "The Minority Report" yet take that to heart. I can see getting video adds from the book store, grociery store, oil change shop etc. I through away junk mail. But I don't pay a fee to take it out of the box first.
Done rambling.