Pradeep -- Thanks, it's good to be around.
Hope to spend a bit more time here.
CougTek -- I was over at a friend's house the other day to do some updates on her computer. She has 8Mb/1.5Mb ADSL that costs 2,000yen/month. I was getting a solid 4Mb/sec download speed from MS. That 2,000yen/month includes the rental of a router/ADSL modem too. (2,000yen = about US$16.70)
As for availability, all addresses in Osaka Prefecture (State) can get ADSL, and all in Osaka City can get 100Mb FTTH. FTTH outside Osaka city is available, but not in all locations throughout the prefecture.
Throghout the country anyone can get 64Kbps (128Kbps too, but no flat rate service) ISDN service (for many years now), and the availability of ADSL is rapidly increasing. Just about every city should be covered, and many rural areas as well. FTTH is also expanding.
When I first arrived in Japan, net access was basically unavailable (1993). In fact, most people had never heard of "the Internet". When I came back again in 1995, there were late-night flat-rate plans and quite a few providers, but many users still paid per minute. ADSL and Cable TV internet were unavailable. FTTH was a distant pipe dream!!! Even in '95 many people had never heard of the net.
In the last few years things have really started to fly though.
Interestingly cell phone usage has been about the same... In the 9 months I was here in 1993 I saw exactly TWO cell phones... Really. It was so suprising to see one that I can still remeber the locations I saw them! They were both Motorolla units.
Returning in 1995 was very different. Cells were everywhere, and the phones were basically being given away to attract subscribers.
Now there are over 60 million cell phones in Japan, and the market is saturated. The cost of phones has gone up quite a bit because there aren't very many new subscribers to attract anymore... At one time I actually had two phones -- one for work, one for me. Thankfully those days are over!
I do have a camera phone though, and I do a lot of email from the phone in both English and Japanese. The phone can send/receive up to about 5400 characters (well, bytes, so 2700 Japanese characters or 5400 English), so it is no problem to get long messages. Short messages (128bytes) are 2yen (1.6 cents), long messages (5400bytes) are 4yen/3.2cents.
Not all is cheap though... We pay for all land-line local calls. Cell plans are expensive and per minute charges are high.
Thankfully international long distance has come waaaaaay down though!
Anyway, that is certainly enough from me about a subject that I am sure no one else is interested in!!! :lol:
Ian
