Softbank to sell (UMTS 3G?) iPhone in Japan
by Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 4th 2008 at 3:10AM
Japan's third-largest mobile phone operator now has rights to Apple's iPhone. As has been the norm recently, the announcement is a one-liner without any details related to exclusivity (NTT DoCoMo and KDDI still can has a chanceburger) or model... though it should be noted that Softbank is a W-CDMA (UMTS 3G), not GSM/EDGE carrier. Softbank only says that they'll be selling the iPhone "later this year."
Filed under: Handsets, UMTS, Softbank Mobile, Apple
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mroach @ Jun 4th 2008 9:38AM
au by KDDI is CDMA; so no, they don't have a chanceburger
mark.tang07 @ Jun 4th 2008 10:21AM
for softbank and docomo's 3G phones they all have GSM in them. It allows the japanese to do roaming.
Daniel Perz @ Jun 4th 2008 6:18PM
That may be true, but those are for roaming. So the point is that the iPhone that Softbank will be selling will absolutely HAVE to have UMTS, otherwise it just wouldn't work over there.
greenlight @ Jun 6th 2008 3:32PM
Yeah and only the very latest generation have GSM Roaming capabilities - I have a Softbank from 2007 that's UMTS only (still works perfectly fine here in Europe though).
cmetom @ Jun 5th 2008 9:56AM
I thought it was a sure thing that the new iPhone "2.0" would be 3G... how come all the unsure comments?
It's going to be Triband UMTS and Quadband GSM (or as everyone seems to like to point out, GSM/EDGE).
I don't see what's not straightforward about that. Then it will globally support 3G.
NuShrike @ Jun 5th 2008 4:50PM
Depends on what frequencies Apple will support. It's now easy to lock out T-Mobile USA's 3G too by not supporting 1700MHz WCDMA.