Looking to get my first personal mobile phone contract in Japan.
We have Softbank home wifi but existing work mobiles on Docomo.
Reading hosts of reviews and recommendations Ahamo and iijmio (via BicCamera) look to be the best with English support here in Central Tokyo.
We have a non-English speaking Docomo store next to where we live and enquired this morning.
Can we simply go in there and arrange a Ahamo contract, obtaining the SIM the same day, language willing?
Or as some sources have pointed out is it an online only and therefore long drawn-out process?
We have all the necessary documents to hand.
8 comments
I don’t believe that you can apply for Ahamo service in the store for free. I remember seeing a placard explaining that they do offer a feed “Ahamo sign-up support” option for 3000 yen + tax to help you register for Ahamo service in-store usijg your smartphone though.
Ahamo can be applied for online, just make sure your phone is compatible.
I think there’s a charge to apply in-store, just part of their ~~greed~~ ensuring quality service.
I would suggest trying online first if you can. The Docomo store will charge a “handling fee” to do exactly what you would have done online. When I did it, they ran into the same identity verification problems I had on my own, and they ended up not charging me the fee because they failed. It kept telling me my name didn’t match.
I had to go through a long and convoluted route that is proven to work (source: me). I found it on this sub last year in fact.
If Ahamo rejects you for identity reasons (name is most common), just go and sign up for the basic Docomo plan and waive every upgrade offer. They’ll set you up then and there (with a SIM) and get you into the system (which is the whole objective). Then, go home and log in to the Ahamo site and select to transfer your existing Docomo account to Ahamo.
It’s stupid, but I had no luck signing up for Ahamo directly. The Docomo plan switcharoo was the only way that worked for me. Yeah, you have to front some money for the Docomo plan, only to switch, but it’s worth it.
Hmmm… Thank you both.
Might nip to BicCamera in Shibuya with all the documents then, to check out iiJmio.
Softbank do a Family-type affair but even with all the discounts, it comes out at roughly 5K a month.
I went to Bic in Shibuya and they said they could not help and Ahamo was online only. After that I just made an appointment online at the nearest docomo store and went there. Cost was as commented previously here.
I’m on ahamo and I switched from rakuten mobile (online) about a week ago. Took maybe 3hrs from submitting all my documents to receiving my esim (if your phone is compatible) but all done in Japanese. Google translate helps though if you don’t speak Japanese.
There’s literally no physical support for ahamo, you only have the online chat support during business hours too. This online chat support is also done in Japanese.
You have to pay a 3000 yen fee to get your ahamo contract set up at a docomo shop and they literally just go to the ahamo website going through the process with you.
A better use of your 3000 yen would be to get the cheapest docomo contract with none of the frills physically at the docomo shop, and after setting that up, do the online switch from docomo to ahamo which takes literally just one minute.
That said, ahamo service is cheap and reliable.
I used to be on iijmio a couple of years back, definitely cheaper than ahamo but since they are an mvno, you are mainly piggybacking off of a larger network, basically means you are on a lower priority for network coverage compared to people on a direct contract especially in crowded areas. That means that if you’re in a crowded location (think shibuya/shinjuku), expect spotty mobile data/phone call quality even if you’ve got full bars for your network signal strength.
Happy to answer any added questions you might have 🙂 my experience is fresh since it’s very recent
Get both home and mobile service from Docomo. You might get a better deal.
I’ve had Ahamo for about a month and 1/2 now. Switched from SoftBank which has crazy poor service.
I did in 2 steps because I also need a new phone and wanted to put it under contract.
First step I transferred my old SB tel # to an NTT contract that was set up as a placeholder. Did this at Yodobashi store. From there, I had 1 month on the new NTT contract with my new phone financed there.
Second step was online switchover to Ahamo. I did it online and it took 15 minutes to switch from the NTT contract. The phone finance still exists, but the hardware charge just got added to my Ahamo account.
The NTT guy said they could also switch over to Ahamo for me, but it would have been a charge service. I think it would have cost about 2000¥ (something like that).
The Ahamo service is better than SB. No complaints so far, and I have traveled all over JP with no service issues.
Much cheaper than the big carriers with pretty much the same performance as NTT.
If you don’t need hardware, you can switch straight to Ahamo online. However you need to compete the number transfer process with your current carrier.