[Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TokyoGuy:
Hello. In a nutshell, I would like to know how in the world I can get my unlocked Nexus S to work in Japan with respect to data transmission.

Early this year I developed an interest in foreign smartphones as all we had here in Japan was the (IMHO) horrid Xperia X10 and the wonderful HTC Desire. I have purchased a number of phones from overseas (either Hong Kong or the UK) including:

HTC Mini (HK)

HTC Desire (HK)

Xperia X2 (UK)

Galaxy S (UK)

Galaxy Tab (UK)

Nexus S (USA)

Now here's the thing: ALL of these phones were unlocked yet NONE of them allowed any data transmission except the HTC Mini. To this day I fail to understand why.

When I got the HTC Mini, I was using the Mopera U APN/service. I put my Docomo SIM card into the Mini and without doing anything at all, it had data connectivity from the start. To this day I question if it was something related to Windows Mobile, as all of the other phones I listed above are Android (except for the X2).

I had Mopera U with all of these other phones and yet NONE of them work, even after I have tried multiple APN services and have manually typed in the APN settings (i.e. mpr2.bizho.net, spmode.ne.jp, mopera.flat.foma.ne.jp, etc).

Just yesterday I received my unlocked Nexus S from the USA and while it hardly came as a surprise, I am nonetheless infuriated once again that the phone refuses to connect to the wireless network.

It should be noted however that the very first time I attempted to connect the Nexus S to the mpr2.bizho.net APN, for a scant one second, the 3G data transmission icon appeared in the taskbar at the top of the screen, but then immediately disappeared. Since that initial setting, it has never reappeared when I toggle the APN.

Can anyone please offer some advice here? I fail to believe that there is absolutely no way to use this phone in Japan. With all the different network bands and whatnot supported by this phone, surely it has to work. I am still at a loss as to why the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab failed to connect to the network here when both are in fact, available for purchase domestically. Are the manufacturers actually creating modified band phones for each country despite making the same exact product?

Docomo is absolutely no help whatsoever, claiming that the ONLY band supported here is "3G" and denying any understanding of the other band spectrums (i.e. Quad Band GSM, Tri-Band HSPA, etc).

Some of the IT-related people I know have suggested that my phone is in fact, NOT unlocked and thus the problem stems from that, however considering that the phone will instantly register the NTT DOCOMO network and I can make calls and receive SMS messages, I fail to believe the phone is locked.

I will bring up a point that a friend passed onto me: They suggested that perhaps my problem is that the phone won't work because the previous carrier settings are still on it. The seller on eBay however stated that this was a factory unlocked phone and thus I don't think this applies, though I was a bit confused as to why there was a T-Mobile SIM card inside the Nexus S box, which led me to believe that perhaps the phone is unlocked but it is "defaulted" to T-Mobile network values?

Anyway if anyone could be of some assistance here I would greatly appreciate it.