DoCoMo is cool, AU and Vodafone are not. DoCoMo is insanely expensive, AU and Vodafone are not. DoCoMo's coverage was once the best but is not getting any better, AU and Vodafone's is as good as/better than DoCoMo and getting better. Most people use DoCoMo, including me. I pay about 4000yen a month for unlimited packet transfer ie. mail and internet (porn,porn,porn,porn,auctions,porn,porn) and another 2thou for calls. I don't get coverage in my house so I have to plug it into a cord attached to an antenna outside (so much for mobile). 6thou for a phone with shite coverage sounds like studipity, which DoCoMo is all about, but everybody is on DoCoMo here and it's cool to follow the crowd. Using AU and Vodafone gets you funny looks.