I’m looking for an internet provider for my apartment.
I moved here a few months ago and am sick of portable WiFi because the connection isn’t stable in my area of DEEP West Tokyo and I want to take online Japanese convo lessons.
I don’t need some crazy high speed connection, what do people recommend?
On searches of Reddit it suggested Asahi Ntt but I signed up and they are charging high fees and taking a million fucking years to contact me. I requested to have it setup in September and all the bullshit, forms, callbacks have made the process so slow I want to choose someone else.
They haven’t explained the process well and are still expecting me to rent my own router separately. I never expected having internet setup in my own place to be so difficult, or require me to go through multiple companies.
Not to mention they asked me to send them a FAX to prove my identity, when they have my email and I could’ve just emailed them. Welcome to Japan I guess.
Edit: just reread this post and realized how bitter and butthurt I sound. I was frustrated and appreciate the helpful comments ☺️
5 comments
1) internet installation could take from weeks to months depending on how busy the contractors are. this is nothing new. raging about it isn’t going to make it faster. You could have selected Asahi-NET with FLETS (or maybe you did?) where they handle billing and arrange NTT construction/etc for you if you didn’t want to deal with multiple companies, but then again, the work would have been done by contractors anyway.
2) you already went with NTT flets and asahi-net? Congratulations, that’s one of the cheaper available combos while still maintaining a proper service. What “fees” are you concerned about? Generally, connection from NTT will be around 4000-5000 yen and provider should be < 1000 yen. There’s often a construction charge, but if you shopped around and took advantage of some campaign/deal, you could have got that waived. too late now tho, it sounds like you are already signed up.
3) You don’t need to rent a router, in fact, you shouldn’t, as the longer you use it, the more you’re wasting money on something that isn’t even yours.
https://www.buffalo.jp/product/detail/wsr-1500ax2s-bk.html is something I recommend to people who don’t have a preference for a device because its cheap and supports all current IPoE standards in Japan.
4) fax is just something you’ll have to deal with.
Have you tried SoftBank Air? It’s a kind of midway between a pocket wifi and a true wired connection. SoftBank let me use one for the month between signing a contract with them and getting it installed, and it was a wonderful experience.
I live in semi-deep Aichi which is, I would expect, even less populated than deep west Tokyo (which I just want to add, made me chuckle. Not making fun of you or anything but I just thought you must be real city folk)
Edit: I checked and wow west Tokyo is way greener than I thought. But I still think SoftBank Air might be a good choice for you if your cell phone gets service where you live!
To add a little to the previous commenter: Except for a few providers, all landlines in Japan are essentially owned by the same corporation. Therefore, the price will always be roughly the same. I made my contract through NTT docomo and chose a provider that was a) cheap and b) gives me a router for free while I use the service (shoutout GMO).
I shopped around until I found a place with an employee who walked me through everything in English (NTT at akihabara UDX, literally only one guy tho). Took about two weeks to set everything up and have it installed. In total you’re looking at around 5,500¥, haven’t seen anything cheaper either.
You can get internet set up with a quick online signup and receiving a follow up call to confirm the service work date/time. Not sure why you’re having such a hard time. Go on Kakaku.com and go to the provider section, put in your postal code and you’ll see a list of providers with their various plans. Not all will be available because the type of service depends on what kind of infrastructure is in place in the building. Nuro 2gbps and the other providers that offer 5gbps+ cannot use existing infrastructure so the availability really depends on whether or not they can successfully complete the construction they need.
As other commenters mentioned, you’re signing up for a 2-3+ year plan so it’s easy to get a lot of costs waived. You shouldn’t have to pay for construction/setup costs unless you’re in specific situation. You might just have to pay a “signup fee” and the first month of service. The service cost should also be reduced by a significant amount for xx amount of months as part of the signup plan. Naturally the downside is that by breaking contract you have to pay a termination fee. They’re not so terrible these days though at around 7000-10,000 depending on the provider and how early you leave.
Also mentioned, the fees are not a whole lot different by company. For an apartment that has a shared connection the cost is around 4500 or so for a month with no bonuses. A “house plan” is a little more expensive at a little over 5000 yen. You might have to have a house plan even if you live in an apartment, again depending on the infrastructure of the place. That’s for 1gbps speeds. Going down to 100mbps doesn’t really save you a whole lot, likely cause they’re still using the same cabling. Even my last apartment that could only do 100mbps, I was still paying the fee for a 1gbps line.
The flow is generally:
* Sign up online or call to sign up.
* Set up the construction/setup date which can be a few weeks from the signup date depending on how busy it is.
* If you signed up completely online you’ll likely get 1-2 follow up calls to verbally agree to some terms, and confirm the construction date.
* Maybe another call on the day of construction to make sure you are home.
* They check the line and maybe replace the user end cable. If the infrastructure is all set up and they don’t have to do much and this just takes like 15 minutes. If they have to run actual new wire this will take a longer time.
* They connect the modem to your line and you have internet. Plug in your router or whatever else.
Even though you are technically contracting with two companies, the process is usually just contacting with your ISP. You don’t have to contact NTT for their equipment or construction stuff, the ISP will handle all that stuff for you. That’s essentially why you are paying them. The company you signed up for just seems really old and outdated if they need you to fax shit and keep everything separate.
I plugged the ethernet cable from the router into the socket in the wall and have fast reliable internet. Magic.