# Paying Phone Bill



## TheHitchcocks

We are moving to the Niigata area next month. I will be in Tokyo for a week prior to moving to Niigata.

If I purchase a phone and service in Tokyo, can I pay for the service every month in Niigata? Or should I wait to purchase service until after we get to Niigata?

MJH


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## larabell

If you're talking about a mobile phone, it shouldn't make any difference. The carriers are not regional so the phone will work anywhere in Japan and payment can be made from anywhere. But research what the coverage is like for the various carriers. Tokyo is more-or-less 100% covered by every carrier (or so they claim) but Niigata coverage could be more spotty.


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## Don_Lugo

I prefer AU over the other carriers. I live in Yokosuka and have traveled all over Honshu and Hokkaido and even in the remotest of areas, I've never had less than 2 bars...

Plus AU also allows other addons that are reasonably priced, my favorite is a pocket WiFi which I have so my guests from out of country can still use their smart phones without having to change IC chips...

Welcome to Japan


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## JamesInJapan

I used Docomo for a while, what a horrible train wreck of a mistake...

Honestly all the big-name carriers are way too expensive.

I now use 0-sim (for data only), my girlfriend uses DMM-Mobile (for phone plus data), and our monthly costs went down from like 15000 yen to 2000 yen.

In the last few years a lot of cheaper carriers have been popping up, then tend to all use the formerly-public NTT network so the connections are quite good. We get LTE.


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