The Wall Street Journal has just confirmed that Apple has announced Japanese customers will be able to use micro SIM cards with carriers outside of the country. The announcement comes after rumors that iPad 3Gs in Japan may be carrier-locked.
This doesn’t mean that Japanese users will be able to take advantage of carriers outside of the country when in Japan, but rather be able to save money on roaming charges by utilizing a micro SIM when roaming internationally. If the rumors were true, that would have meant Japanese customers would have been forced to incur the high roaming charges charged by the only Japanese iPad carrier, Softbank. NTT DoCoMo had plans to offer the device but backed out after Softbank entered an exclusive deal with Apple.
Apple finally commented on reports that the 3G-capable iPad will be locked to a single carrier in Japan to say that isn’t actually the case. Instead, only Softbank will offer a 3G data plan for the multimedia tablet in Japan, but users can subscribe to other carrier packages if they take their iPad outside of the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When Apple introduced the iPad in January, the company said that models supporting 3G wireless data connections wouldn’t be locked to specific carriers so users would have the freedom to choose the carrier and data plan they want.
In Japan, however, it looks like customers will still be limited to using the plans Softbank offers because NTT DoCoMo won’t be offering any iPad data packages. When traveling outside Japan, users will be free to purchase SIM cards from other carriers so they won’t have to pay expensive roaming charges.
The clarification is also good news for iPad owners traveling to Japan since they can use Softbank’s SIM cards in their tablets, too.
[via TUAW ]
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