On Thu, 12 Aug 2004, Gerhard Fasol wrote:
> The only flat rate data is H" by DDI-Pocket (or equivalent
> service by DoCoMo).
I don't think DoCoMo has an equivalant, does it?
There are two kinds of data services running over PHS technology.
One is a 64 Kbps circuit-switched connection which is charged on a
per-minute basis, just like a standard phone call. You can think of this
as basically the same thing as an ISDN call.
The second is packet-switched data running over the data channel used
by that cell. This runs at either 32 Kbps (one channel) or 128 Kbps
(four channels), but the bandwidth is shared with call setup information
(pretty minimal) and anybody else using data in that cell (generally
nobody; the cells are very small, only about 250 to 500 m in diameter).
This is charged at a flat rate per month.
In my experience (and I have worked with a reseller of DDI's service)
the 128 Kbps packet-switched connection in reality runs at about 80 to
90 Kbps. The 32 Kbps is a full 32 Kbps. The latencies are rather high
(on par with a modem), making interactive use (such as telnet or ssh
sessions) a bit painful. Also, the handover between cells is not all
that fast, so the service tends to go in and out when you're in a train,
for example.
There's a reseller of DDI's service called b-mobile
(www.bmobile.ne.jp) that has information available in English
(http://www.jcius.com/) and a reseller that offers English
support (http://www.westportcommunications.com/). They also
offer WiFi access via several different hotspot providers
(http://www.jcius.com/personal/wlan/index.html), and were working on
international hotspot service, last I checked. You might have a look
at them. You can buy a card and six months of prepaid service at Bic
Camera, and probably other major camera shops and electronics shops.
cjs
--
Curt Sampson <cjs_at_cynic.net> +81 90 7737 2974 http://www.NetBSD.org
Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light. --XTC
Received on Thu Aug 12 01:59:24 2004