DoCoMo To Offer Overseas Roaming For 3G Users
It appears DoCoMo has come up with one solution for dealing with the question of how to offer “global roaming”. They’re now going to offer the ability for subscribers to rent GSM phones from DoCoMo for a small fee that they can take overseas (using their own SIM cards). Not the most elegant solution, but will probably satisfy some folks in Japan who are worried about what to do overseas. There are already places that will simply rent you a GSM phone, but by tying it to the user’s DoCoMo account, it probably makes it much more appealing. It’s a bit surprising that other (non-GSM) carriers haven’t gone this route as a simple fix to the question of global roaming.
Filed Under: 3g
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Verizon Too
Verizon has a similar program of rental phones, so its CDMA customers can roam to foreign GSM networks. Verizon issues a phone and SIM card, and the calls appear on the Verizon wireless bill. Verizon Wireless is almost half owned by global GSM carrier Vodafone.