Unlocked US iPhone in Japan

[nubon]

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I presently live in Japan, but travel back to the US fairly regularly.

As I'm planning to go back to the US in the next year or so, I've been thinking about getting an unlocked US iPhone and using it on au. I was wondering if anyone else here has been done this? I'm fairly sure that there won't be any technical issues getting calls and accessing the internet, but the au website seems to indicate that using the au network with an iPhone acquired outside of Japan may be subject to international data/phone rates.

Does anyone know if changing the APN for a US iPhone would let me use it with my current au SIM without incurring international data and/or phone rates? I'm planning to go to the US later this spring and am considering picking up an unlocked iPhone during my trip.

 

[AnotherTag]

Changing the APN on iPhone/iOS requires downloading profile these days. There is no such option to manually edit the APN anymore. Other than that, you might want to check the frequencies US iPhone has (two versions, Verizon/Apple or AT&T/T-Mobile) and what AU uses. I vaguely remember Japan version of iPhone 7/7+ has extra frequencies and FeliCa/SUICA support, but other than that, they are identical.

Is there a reason why you wouldn't want to get the Japan version instead? The camera sound? More expensive and you would lock into the contract for another 2 years?

 

[KumaDog]

Changing the APN on iPhone/iOS requires downloading profile these days. There is no such option to manually edit the APN anymore. Other than that, you might want to check the frequencies US iPhone has (two versions, Verizon/Apple or AT&T/T-Mobile) and what AU uses. I vaguely remember Japan version of iPhone 7/7+ has extra frequencies and FeliCa/SUICA support, but other than that, they are identical.

Is there a reason why you wouldn't want to get the Japan version instead? The camera sound? More expensive and you would lock into the contract for another 2 years?

I lol'd at "the camera sound." Good point.