This is my second year in Japan and my first time moving on my own in the country. I got a new job in Tokyo but this time I am the one responsible for all the details of the apartment and one potential issue I did not foresee was with the internet.
After talking with the real estate company I’m working with it seems as though it’s normal for the connection to only be usable after roughly a month from when the contract was signed. I thought it was just my provider, but I was told it was all the ones I was interested in.
I will be having online training and will need a stable connection for video calls during the month of April and was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I can get and use immediately for my use case. It’ll be about a week of full 8 hours of video calling.
I would appreciate any advice.
EDIT: Thank you so much for all the advice! I’ll definitely look into getting pocket wifi for a month with unlimited daily usage until my apartment net is up and running.
12 comments
You could get a short-term pocket wifi rental like the ones they offer at the airport. I’m guessing you don’t have to be a foreign tourist to rent them.
Then again a full 8 hours a day of video calling is pretty data intensive so you’ll have to check what data plan you can get for that time.
Pocket wifi. Or: how old is your phone contact? You might want to explore a no limit 5G mobile plan. Another route would be to look for a work space with wifi in your neighborhood and buy into that for a month.
Cheapest option would be to get a provider that provides you a free rental router while waiting for the fiber line
https://selectra.jp/telecom/guides/hikaku/kaitsumae-wifi#%E3%83%89%E3%82%B3%E3%83%A2%E5%85%89%20x%20GMO%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8F%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8FBB%20%E3%83%A2%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%83%ABWi-Fi%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%83%AB
As already said by others, get a pocket Wifi or update your plan to some unlimited data and use it for a while.
Last year in February I moved from Kansai to Kanto and had roughly 3 weeks no internet and used my Rakuten mobile plan. I am working online the whole time, but only less than 2 hours video calls at that time but a constant connection to a remote desktop and I used around 25GB that time and had no issues at all.
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For internet it is quite common to wait a few weeks or even months especially in March to May. Nuro takes some time if you are applying for that.
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From my personal experience I cannot recommend Softbank as their support is not only bad but I had often issues with the connection when using Hiraki with them ( around 7 years ago). After that the next place only had ADSL and at that time I used AU and it was totally fine. Now I have Hikari again and got the cheap plan (for a year and after that it will be around 5000 Yen) from Rakuten Hikaru (as I an also using Rakuten Mobile and other services, it fitted well)
Rakuten ichiba have several pocket WiFi rental deals, you just order it online and it gets delivered to you (with a prepaid envelope to send it back). Just checked and there’s a 30 day rental deal with no data limit for 5000 yen. I think there is some throttling after a certain amount of data usage though.
When I moved I was given basically a pocket wifi by the company to use until they came to install the connection in my new apartment. I used Softbank so I got one of the Softbank Air machines to use for a couple of weeks. I would ask your company if something like that is possible for you.
Rakuten has a fair usage policy so they might reduce your speed.
The only one I found that is reasonable and unlimited is wireless japan. They have lots of discount codes in travel groups.
I know there’s other comments that say it, but pocket wifi.
I literally use it as my normal wifi, the bad internet that came 1 month free with my Leopalace was ¥4000 a month and slow, so I opted not to continue and got pocket wifi. Don’t regret it at all, and it’s basically a wash in terms of cost. I went from a ¥2750 phone plan to ¥1750, and the pocket wifi is ¥5500 a month I believe. So, for a slightly higher price than slow leonet+10gb plan, I have a phone on the cheapest plan, but i can use the pocket wifi to get unlimited wifi at home and on the go if I bring it.
As others have said, pocket wifi. This store on Rakuten is the only one I’ve found offering unlimited data plans (look for “無制限”):
https://www.rakuten.co.jp/mobile-p/
I’ve used them a couple of times, leaving Netflix or whatever running on my TV for hours on end, day after day and never had my connection ended or speed throttled.
What are you using for mobile? I’m on the docomo 5G plan with unlimited data, and I work a lot away from home tethering my laptop to my phone and will rack up 60+GB in a month with no performance issues (works a million times better than SoftBank Air, for instance)
SoftBank Air 5G – contract and wifi access the same day. It is fine for video conferencing etc.
I think it is more robust than pocket wifi
So, let me get this straight: you’re moving from Central Japan to Tokyo, just to work a Remote job with 8 hours of video calls?