Journal lingqi's Journal: November 29, 2002 - phone and internet 2
November 29, 2002 (5:00pm)
My "time cost" for the journal goes like this usually: first spend about 5-10 minutes thinking about how to *start* writing, then half to two hours of hurried typing (it's not good for my wrists, I tell ya), and then some fudging around (proof-read if I have time, connect to slashdot and verify character encoding and whatever), and another 5-10 minutes of sitting and wondering about the title for the day - which, as you guys have already noticed, does not come off very creatively...
Well... I just got off the phone with NTT; they called me up and asked me to decide about my phone line and stuff. I was just about to say "I have no fear" and post my number (like my cellphone) but, well, I wussed out.
The entire conversation took 70 minutes, (actually it was 71:34, to be precise) which is a really long time. I think it took me (back in the states) about 15 minutes to get a phone line with SBC (well, not counting the holding), 10 minutes to get gas and electricity, and 10 minutes to get water...
After this looong discussion, I still have less idea of how the entire phone thing work than, say, (I don't know - in my brain the analogy plugin is clogged for the time being).
But they are very nice about everything, and I honestly believe this ordeal (not the talking - the actual order-confirm-blah-install) took (will take?) less time than SBC and they are five times more friendly. From when I called them to when my line will be installed, it is slightly under two weeks, and would have been even less 6-7 (business) days had I been able to make it to for earlier installation date.
The lady called and went through the application with me. Important things discussed:
*) price per month is 2240yen (this includes the 640 line-lease charge) + 390yen (touch-tone dial (yeah I know, this does not come standard? but everyone gets it, if it's consolation)) + 300yen (call waiting). I skipped the caller-ID and voicemail and all the others because I probabbly won't buy an phone sufficiently expensive to include callerID (or bring phone from US so callerID is not compatible), and international calls don't show up with anything meaningful anyhow. Total is just shy of three thousand yen per month before any actual toll charges.
*) Installation charge is between 3,000-10,000 yen. It is high because I live in a newly built apartment, and they have no record of what the line condition is and if internal wiring needs to be done.
*) They gave a two-hour window for the installation (very precise stuff). And you can ask them to call you before they come, if so desired (I elected no-call if they are not late/early, since cellphone reception is crap in my place and the engineers speak only japanese anyhow).
*) Telephone directory will be delivered and you have option of english or japanese (I didn't ask about chinese version but now that I think about it, that would have been a good idea). I went with japanese because I don't like romanji. They also asked if I want my name listed in kanji or kana... This is so specific to me I don't think anyone need to worry about it.
*) You don't get to choose the area code and exchange number, but I had the choice between three numbers (2705, 2531, and 2764). I will tell y'all later which one I chose (if I am reminded) in case anybody want to take bets (of, say, karma).
*) You *need* to have an analog phone at your place when they come. I don't - so I will need to buy one. You can of course bum old ones off your friend - or if you are smart (I am not) bring from the US.
*) Local call is never flat-rate and instead charges in 3-minute increments. This presents a big problem when a person is on a modem for net-access (this would be ME for at least a while). NTT does provide a solution - for 1,800 yen per month, you can select two numbers (local, I think) to which you dial for free / flat rate / something or another between 11pm and 8am. I am usually asleep between these times, so I skipped this one.
*) They also asked if the visiting engineers are allowed to use your bathroom (?). Strange isn't it? - yes I am just kidding to see if anybody is paying attention still.
*) There was the question of "myline" and "myline plus" preferences. I forgot to talk about this earlier so I will divert onto this for a while:
In the states, you would sign up with (say) SBC for local and in-state long distance and the AT&T/MCI/Sprint/whoever for domestic/international long distance, but in Japan you are by default under NTT for all four categories. The neat thing is, though, you can punch out an access code and switch carriers in real-time (well, before a call is made - not while you are talking - unless you are talking to the dial-tone). For example you can hit 0041 and then your number you want to call, if you want your call to be carried through by KDDI.
Myline lets you specify which company takes care of which service so you don't have to do punch access codes all the time - in the other words it's the exact same thing as what you have in the US but more grainularity - up to four carriers for the four types of service.
Myline plus is not actually "plus" and should probabbly be named "myline in a different way" because you automatically sign up under one carrier for all four services, and that punching access codes DOES NOT WORK if you are under this plan. Since this allows a company to excercise monopolic power over your phone, you get deeper discounts.
To switch carriers costs 840 yen every time you want to switch, but it free the first time (same price for switching between myline and myline plus, too). There is a catch - for the first time (pre-register) you can only pick carriers out of the myline association, and they are not often the cheaper than NTT. the service (myline/plus) is free itself, and actually one of those laws that government passed to curb the monopoly of NTT.
Telephone here sometimes have a feature where it will remember access codes for different kinds of calls - so that will save some trouble if you are the access code punching kind of person, but remember that if you are under myline plus access codes don't do anything.
Lastly, if you go with Yahoo's enigmatic BB phone (that comes with their ADSL and gets you 1.5yen/min rates to the US), all this is moot because it bypasses all that (another reason why I think it's VoIP).
The other thing we (I and the NTT lady) discussed is my unfortunate internet access situation. It turns out that since I am on the fringe of kumagaya, I am served my the kumagaya NTT (very, very far) instead of the closer Gyoda NTT. So while 300 meters away my friend can get a 2Mbit throughput on his 12Mbit line (you only get 12 if you are within a few hundred meters to the office), I will probabbly not be able to get ADSL at rates faster than 7-800k, if that much, or at all.
Worse yet, my understanding is that my switch (I think it's called the "exchange" in US) is fibre all to the central office, which means that to be able to get ADSL I would need to cough up additional installation charges because I would be switched from a fibre line to a copper line (or something like that) and the charges will be no less than 15,000 yen. Moreover, this amount is non-refundable upon the line's activation. Since I won't know if ADSL is fast / slow / works at all until the line activates, there is a high likelihood that this money will be spent for nothing.
I thought about it long and hard (about 2.8 seconds) and decided that I will seriously look into fibre-to-door internet access.
For fibre-to-door (B-flet) The installation charge is 27,400 yen minimum (I am not sure about the 4, but everything else is right) plus contract charge (800 yen). It would take about a month and half for the line to activate (bah-humbug!). Monthly fee is 5,800yen + 900yen (rental for fibre-modem - can't buy this) + whatever the ISP charges you. It seems that Asahi-net (an ISP with reputable english support staff) will do everything on the ISP side for about 3000yen. This is the "new-family plan" or somesuch. If you want a static IP you will need to go with basic plan, where the 5800 becomes 9000, and the 3000 from asahi becomes about 4500. side-note: "asahi" (æoeæ--¥) means "morning sun," and I am sure everybody knows already that it's the most popular beer brand in Japan.
All in all, 100Mbit pipe (I actually think it's synchronos!) to the house for 80 dollars per month. To be honest I am willing to cough up the installation charge if it does not deviate from the 27xxx too much. It's a great shame that you can't run a site on this fat pipe unless you pay a lot more every month, though.
Keep in mind that some routers only have 10Mbit WAN port - and that 802.11a (few years later we will all come back and say - wow that's OLD technology) uses 5.4GHz band and that's not an ISM (industrial, scientific, medical) band in Japan. Some ideas to keep in mind when shopping for routers.
The B-flet engineer will show up at the same time as the telephone dude. Since it's only an inspection right now, I have the right to cancel all the way up to when they install the line (for free).
Beware, though, that since it's an apartment you'd need the landlord's permission to use some common pipe for them to pull fibres through. The landlord does not need to sign / send anything - this is to make sure that he/she is aware of what you are doing in public area in the possibility of complaint.
By request, I was going to write in length about the style of japanese houses (inside, outside) - but I did not expect myself to ramble on about the phone and stuff for this long. I realized that there are things I never talked about because they were only shocking to me on my first two trips (the first was purely for seeing Japan and second was for house-hunting) - so if there are thing that I might have taken for granted and anybody really curious about, I will do my best to reflect upon them. But as for the house and their peculiarities, I will elaborate next time (monday?).
I found out, as a side-note, where is the most expensive (Steinway & Sons) piano in this prefecture. It is owned by my company. I would like to have a chance to try playing on that sometimes! (for the curious, its cost was in the middle six-figures - US dollar equivalent.)
Re: Your Telephonic Trials And Tribulations... (Score:1)
PS. I'm with NTL now, in case you're wondering, and Hell will most definitely have to freeze over before I go back to BT...
Yahoo BB Phone Price (Score:1)
I am positive it is VoIP, but I haven't used it myself yet (there is no way they could get it that cheap otherwise, and even at that it is hard to believe it is so inexpensive). Three of my friends have it here now (I am *patiently* waiting for the modem and line activation), and Yahoo BB actually called our telecommunications guy at work and tried to setup up a sales meeting. He said that he was calling from the Yahoo BB phone, and my coworker said the call sounded completely normal, so that is encouraging.