Seems like all of the reviews are from 2 years back. How is Rakuten Mobile now? Is it really unlimited or does it slow down at a certain point? Any issues? My friend works there and wants us to sign up.
While you were writing this I was chatting with a friend about how horrible Rakuten Mobile is, what a huge failure it is, and how awful it is that they make every employee shill for them by threatening their jobs.
But you do you.
I’m using Rakuten Mobile for 6 months now and i gotta say it’s pretty good. If you choose the Unlimited V plan you will indeed have unlimited internet without slowing down. The only thing is that price change if you go over 20GB but still very cheap. Under 20GB it’ll be 1980yen, but going over it’s gonna be a little more than 3000yen. The other inconvenience is that according to where you are there won’t be any network at all so you won’t be able to use your phone at all. But to be honest it’s way better than any Softbank, UQ or Docomo in my opinion!
Rakuten Mobile is going through a crisis for a reason. It’s probably not because they are a good service.
Just signed up for it about a month ago. So far so good. Was really surprised TBH. 5gb a month to use on AU network in non rakuten areas, and speeds capped at 1mbps for going over 5gb. It’s not bad. Decent speeds in rakuten covered areas. I switched over from povo 2.0
There are very few dead spots in cities now (the one near my place at the start got covered very early on). Speed is good enough that zoom or Netflix at high bitrate don’t drop out.
There was the corruption/malfeasance event internally (an employee was colluding with a contractor and after he was found out and ties with that company cut it caused a chain reaction of contractor and subcontractor bankruptcies that ultimately led to 500 lost jobs), but that shouldn’t affect the customer experience.
In the city works completely fine except some basements and it cutting out some times on the metro. But apart from that, no issues what-so-ever, and it’s the cheapest. So I’m happy.
I don’t know about the company…..but I haven’t had an issue with speed or service at all. Cheap AF.
I’ve been using it for over 6 months and it’s lqrgely been great. The 2GB included free roaming abroad is also super helpful and has worked fine across Korea, Europe and the US so far. As others have said, reception has some very random and rare gaps but overall quite good, even in remote areas.
I recently switched to Rakuten Mobile from another MVNO because of their payment bracket system (where if you use up to 3GB you only pay 1100, any more up to 20GB is 2200), and the fact that you can pay with Rakuten points.
I earn well over 1000 rakuten points per month just off paying my bills, rent, groceries etc. on my rakuten credit card, so if I can keep my data usage under 3GB then it’s basically free. Even if I go over that, it’s then 20GB for way cheaper than anywhere else, so it’s still a win-win.
They even gave me 7000 points for signing up, which I rotated back to pay for service. So that’s like 6 months’ worth of the contract for free right off the bat.
The only issue I’ve had with them is that their service isn’t quite as good as the MVNO’s I had before, which used Docomo’s line. Sometimes if I’m on the train or well into the mountains in Gifu, it’ll cut out where Docomo wouldn’t. But it’s a small price to pay for being essentially free.
I’d say it’s definitely worth it.
The coverage is shit, don’t do it. They just don’t have enough bands. If you go inside of a building then it will not connect.
In the countryside, or travelling, can be meh. Otherwise, I barely had a problem with it.
I’m sure your friend wants you to sign up as the company forces their employees to be salesmen and gives them a quota. Don’t support that!
I’ve had zero problems since I joined in January. I live in Central Tokyo and don’t travel to rural places much.
I understand it’s the provider everybody loves to hate, but it’s been totally unremarkably fine for me, and it gets me extra Rakuten points (and I use it as a sink for spending my Rakuten points), so it’s pseudo-free.
There’s no cancellation fee, so whatever, if you’re in the city, try it and see if it works for you.
I live in downtown Tokyo and Rakuten Mobile works great for me. In fact I use the same Rakuten service to access the internet via PC (using my phone as a hotspot) so I don’t use any other internet service. 100+ GB every month for just over 3,000 yen. It’s saving me quite a lot.
I’m using it for like 2 years now and don’t have any issues. Some people seem to have issues with voice calls but I very rarely make voice calls and it’s all about data for me. Never had any issues.
Been using it since December with no problems other than the occasional random no signal in a basement. iPhone 13 mini on 5g most of the time. Used it everywhere – Shinkansen, metros, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, even all the way down to Ishigaki with no issues. International roaming to Europe was super handy too.
Is it the best? Certainly not. Is the company a dumpster fire? Probably. But is the service good? I’d say so, and for the price it’s hard to beat.
It’s a super shitty company with awful customer service but if you’re in their coverage area, not too close to the border of their coverage area, it’s fine and pretty cheap overall. 3 people in my household use it, I got into an argument with them and made my very vocal, weak-ass promise to never use them again…so far I’ve held that promise even though it would be a little convenient to all be on the same carrier.
Works great in city areas except when in some metro tunnels. Service intermltten in-between cities on shinkansen but never had issues in travel destinations itself.
Data is unlimited but the price increses at specific usage thresholds. 0-3GB is 980yen, 3-20GB is 1980yen, 20GB above is 2980yen, can’t remember before or after tax. Between home and office wifi I usually use 2-4GB a month despite watching youtube in the train etc. You can pay using Rakuten points too which I tend to have because of furusatonouzei so my phone bill is 0 most months.
Catch is if you enter an area with no Rakuten native coverage you might end up using partner network and that’s limited up to 2GB (top-ups available) before you get throttled. Not sure where these are though, I’ve never hit any area with this.
One more perk if you travel around is Rakuten mobile has agreements with many overseas carriers to let you use their network when going abroad, again up to 2GB. I find this very convenient because it eliminates the need to get mobile wifi/local sim cards. See the list of countries where you can do this here https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/support/international-roaming/area/
Oyerall it’s cheap and I make use of the overseas perk so I’m pretty happy despite the occasional hiccups.
I used Rakuten Mobile as my primary internet provider while doing remote work and nomadding around Japan. My monthly internet usage was up to 100GB/month without any slowdowns. The slowest connection I saw in big towns was around 10Mbps which was more than enough for MY purpose – what’s more important, there were no dropped packets or stutters in apps like Zoom. One real problem was on some remote islands of Okinawa where Rakuten switched to their partner network (Au) – which does have traffic limits, so be careful there. So there you go, that’s my short review. However I must say that you didn’t specify where and how are YOU going to use the network. And everything depends on that. If you’re planning to P2P hundreds of gigs a month, for example – no mobile provider will like that for sure.
I’ve visited a Rakuten mobile location and have checked the coverage in my area. Everything seems to be good cost, coverage etc..but I don’t know anyone who uses it in my area. I often/sometimes visit rural places for hiking etc.
Anyone here who lives in Nara specifically or Kansai and is an active hiker or does lots of outdoors stuff in rural areas that uses Rakuten mobile? Would love to hear your experience. Thank you.
Very slow compared to other companies(although when I get good reception, I get about 25mbs/sec). I can’t even open reddit when I’m in a busy part of Osaka like Umeda. I lose reception before anyone else too. BUT. It is truly unlimited and is twice as cheap as the nearest competitor.
It’s pretty terrible, but it’s also like 1000 yen and I barely use any mobile data so whatever. Just annoying when I need to receive a call since I don’t have service in half of my apartment.
I used Rakuten Mobile for all of three months. My final straw for switching to LINEMO was when I was in a shopping mall and tried paying with PayPay, and I didn’t have service. What if that was my only source of payment? I couldn’t be bothered being with a service that buckles to its knees once I go into a building.
It’s a mobile network service provider.
It’s costs and price points meet needs or they don’t.
My experience: it works? does what I need it to do? yeah? anything else? idgaf. I’ll just churn to the next service provider when my existing phone gets too old or is unsupported.
brand loyalty is way overrated
Defamation laws are pretty strong in Japan, so I will just say everything positive I have to say about them here:
Been to Hong Kong and currently in Vietnam using their service abroad. 2GB a month and 500 per GB after that. Hasn’t cut out once and pretty decent speeds even in ruralish Vietnam. In Tokyo I haven’t ever had any major problems barring some deep car parks, and when I signed up I got a year free (not on offer anymore). Recently changed to their Hikari as well and that’s free for a year by virtue of using mobile. Sounds like shilling, but genuinely haven’t had any issues and their interfaces on the apps to see your data usage are better than others I’ve seen. Worth it imo.
Edit: also didn’t have internet for 3 weeks when I moved house recently and tether everything through their mobile. Used around 150GB in a month for everything from Zoom meetings to downloading vidya (not online play though lol) and had very few issues. Still paid like 2200 for the month.
If you are a Rakuten power user, go for it. Get the points, signing bonus, and even the home internet(it’s free for the first year or two) If not, other services have better connection
Honestly, it’s fine for me. I’m not a heavy phone user though. But I rarely have issues, although people are correct that sometimes you can lose reception in more rural areas. My rakuten points cover my monthly bill so it’s essentially “free.”
Compared to what mobile carriers were charging and very disadvantageous escape clauses something like 7 years ago (guess it’s somewhat different now), I really can’t complain.
I signed up with them 2 years ago with one of the “1 year free” campaigns (before I was also with them, but on their MVNO that used Docomo towers). That first year (when all the terrible reviews are from), their coverage wasn’t great… I couldn’t even get service inside my work building unless I stood near the windows, and it straight up wouldn’t work in busy transfer stations during rush hour, but y’know, it was free.
It’s improved a lot recently though so I stayed on. That said, you still might struggle to find reception in some underground areas, and sometimes when going out of town, though I haven’t had any problems on the subways (Tokyo). I don’t tend to use much data so I can often scrape in under the 3GB line for the lowest price so the slight trade off is worth it for me. They also have roaming data built in which was nice when I went overseas.
Works just fine for me, not the best coverage in buildings but it’s super cheap and i love the bracket system which is very useful if you need to use more internet in a certain month
outside in metro area = OK
inside of shopping malls = connects usually to partner (AU network)
outdoor, hiking, country side = no signal
Helpdesk is very immature. You basically get what you pay for. Definitely cheapest unlimited LTE.
I’ve had it for over a year now. Has worked flawlessly the whole time, mainly in Tokyo and Fukuoka. I’ve never had the feeling it’s slowed down.
I get 2GB a month of free data abroad too, and that’s worked well also.
I’m happy with them and my s.o is switching to them next week.
Been using it (unlimited data only/mifi router) for almost a year now.
Pros: significantly cheaper than comparable options from the big name carriers, coverage all throughout Tokyo hasn’t been an issue, no slowdowns even after using 100s of GB of data (I stream media nearly all day long), points if you have a Rakuten card
Cons: often buffers while watching things even on lower resolution, a handful of times a week (sometimes daily) service just “dies” even though it shows full signal and device must be reset to regain connection, signal seems disrupted in certain types of buildings and often on the train
Not the best or fastest, but certainly not the worst especially for the price. The big carriers will charge you wayyyy more for a similar plan, but will probably have better service and less issues. If you’re not a stickler for having the best of the best I think it’s a very decent option. If you don’t buy a phone from them and just activate a phone you already have or get a mobile router you can cancel your service at any time with no penalties (that I know of) so it is a great temporary option if you’re looking for that.
If you go too deep into even one story wood framed buildings sometimes it cuts out.
If you go for a weekend up a mountain suddenly you are “roaming” in a partner area and your data is not included in your bundle.
The phone reception is awful. I have to ring people back from within my own apartment from their app.
The up sides are that home internet is free for a year, and their service is cheap, and can be offset to a point of being free if you utilise their point system.
I get the feeling that if the interest rate changes they will go under pretty quickly as their margins are likely abysmal.
34 comments
While you were writing this I was chatting with a friend about how horrible Rakuten Mobile is, what a huge failure it is, and how awful it is that they make every employee shill for them by threatening their jobs.
But you do you.
I’m using Rakuten Mobile for 6 months now and i gotta say it’s pretty good. If you choose the Unlimited V plan you will indeed have unlimited internet without slowing down. The only thing is that price change if you go over 20GB but still very cheap. Under 20GB it’ll be 1980yen, but going over it’s gonna be a little more than 3000yen. The other inconvenience is that according to where you are there won’t be any network at all so you won’t be able to use your phone at all. But to be honest it’s way better than any Softbank, UQ or Docomo in my opinion!
Rakuten Mobile is going through a crisis for a reason. It’s probably not because they are a good service.
Just signed up for it about a month ago. So far so good. Was really surprised TBH. 5gb a month to use on AU network in non rakuten areas, and speeds capped at 1mbps for going over 5gb. It’s not bad. Decent speeds in rakuten covered areas. I switched over from povo 2.0
There are very few dead spots in cities now (the one near my place at the start got covered very early on). Speed is good enough that zoom or Netflix at high bitrate don’t drop out.
There was the corruption/malfeasance event internally (an employee was colluding with a contractor and after he was found out and ties with that company cut it caused a chain reaction of contractor and subcontractor bankruptcies that ultimately led to 500 lost jobs), but that shouldn’t affect the customer experience.
In the city works completely fine except some basements and it cutting out some times on the metro. But apart from that, no issues what-so-ever, and it’s the cheapest. So I’m happy.
I don’t know about the company…..but I haven’t had an issue with speed or service at all. Cheap AF.
I’ve been using it for over 6 months and it’s lqrgely been great. The 2GB included free roaming abroad is also super helpful and has worked fine across Korea, Europe and the US so far.
As others have said, reception has some very random and rare gaps but overall quite good, even in remote areas.
I recently switched to Rakuten Mobile from another MVNO because of their payment bracket system (where if you use up to 3GB you only pay 1100, any more up to 20GB is 2200), and the fact that you can pay with Rakuten points.
I earn well over 1000 rakuten points per month just off paying my bills, rent, groceries etc. on my rakuten credit card, so if I can keep my data usage under 3GB then it’s basically free. Even if I go over that, it’s then 20GB for way cheaper than anywhere else, so it’s still a win-win.
They even gave me 7000 points for signing up, which I rotated back to pay for service. So that’s like 6 months’ worth of the contract for free right off the bat.
The only issue I’ve had with them is that their service isn’t quite as good as the MVNO’s I had before, which used Docomo’s line. Sometimes if I’m on the train or well into the mountains in Gifu, it’ll cut out where Docomo wouldn’t. But it’s a small price to pay for being essentially free.
I’d say it’s definitely worth it.
The coverage is shit, don’t do it. They just don’t have enough bands. If you go inside of a building then it will not connect.
In the countryside, or travelling, can be meh. Otherwise, I barely had a problem with it.
I’m sure your friend wants you to sign up as the company forces their employees to be salesmen and gives them a quota. Don’t support that!
I’ve had zero problems since I joined in January. I live in Central Tokyo and don’t travel to rural places much.
I understand it’s the provider everybody loves to hate, but it’s been totally unremarkably fine for me, and it gets me extra Rakuten points (and I use it as a sink for spending my Rakuten points), so it’s pseudo-free.
There’s no cancellation fee, so whatever, if you’re in the city, try it and see if it works for you.
I live in downtown Tokyo and Rakuten Mobile works great for me. In fact I use the same Rakuten service to access the internet via PC (using my phone as a hotspot) so I don’t use any other internet service. 100+ GB every month for just over 3,000 yen. It’s saving me quite a lot.
I’m using it for like 2 years now and don’t have any issues. Some people seem to have issues with voice calls but I very rarely make voice calls and it’s all about data for me. Never had any issues.
Been using it since December with no problems other than the occasional random no signal in a basement. iPhone 13 mini on 5g most of the time. Used it everywhere – Shinkansen, metros, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, even all the way down to Ishigaki with no issues. International roaming to Europe was super handy too.
Is it the best? Certainly not. Is the company a dumpster fire? Probably. But is the service good? I’d say so, and for the price it’s hard to beat.
It’s a super shitty company with awful customer service but if you’re in their coverage area, not too close to the border of their coverage area, it’s fine and pretty cheap overall. 3 people in my household use it, I got into an argument with them and made my very vocal, weak-ass promise to never use them again…so far I’ve held that promise even though it would be a little convenient to all be on the same carrier.
Works great in city areas except when in some metro tunnels. Service intermltten in-between cities on shinkansen but never had issues in travel destinations itself.
Data is unlimited but the price increses at specific usage thresholds. 0-3GB is 980yen, 3-20GB is 1980yen, 20GB above is 2980yen, can’t remember before or after tax. Between home and office wifi I usually use 2-4GB a month despite watching youtube in the train etc. You can pay using Rakuten points too which I tend to have because of furusatonouzei so my phone bill is 0 most months.
Catch is if you enter an area with no Rakuten native coverage you might end up using partner network and that’s limited up to 2GB (top-ups available) before you get throttled. Not sure where these are though, I’ve never hit any area with this.
One more perk if you travel around is Rakuten mobile has agreements with many overseas carriers to let you use their network when going abroad, again up to 2GB. I find this very convenient because it eliminates the need to get mobile wifi/local sim cards. See the list of countries where you can do this here https://network.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/support/international-roaming/area/
Oyerall it’s cheap and I make use of the overseas perk so I’m pretty happy despite the occasional hiccups.
I used Rakuten Mobile as my primary internet provider while doing remote work and nomadding around Japan. My monthly internet usage was up to 100GB/month without any slowdowns. The slowest connection I saw in big towns was around 10Mbps which was more than enough for MY purpose – what’s more important, there were no dropped packets or stutters in apps like Zoom. One real problem was on some remote islands of Okinawa where Rakuten switched to their partner network (Au) – which does have traffic limits, so be careful there. So there you go, that’s my short review. However I must say that you didn’t specify where and how are YOU going to use the network. And everything depends on that. If you’re planning to P2P hundreds of gigs a month, for example – no mobile provider will like that for sure.
I’ve visited a Rakuten mobile location and have checked the coverage in my area. Everything seems to be good cost, coverage etc..but I don’t know anyone who uses it in my area. I often/sometimes visit rural places for hiking etc.
Anyone here who lives in Nara specifically or Kansai and is an active hiker or does lots of outdoors stuff in rural areas that uses Rakuten mobile? Would love to hear your experience. Thank you.
Very slow compared to other companies(although when I get good reception, I get about 25mbs/sec). I can’t even open reddit when I’m in a busy part of Osaka like Umeda. I lose reception before anyone else too. BUT. It is truly unlimited and is twice as cheap as the nearest competitor.
It’s pretty terrible, but it’s also like 1000 yen and I barely use any mobile data so whatever. Just annoying when I need to receive a call since I don’t have service in half of my apartment.
I used Rakuten Mobile for all of three months. My final straw for switching to LINEMO was when I was in a shopping mall and tried paying with PayPay, and I didn’t have service. What if that was my only source of payment? I couldn’t be bothered being with a service that buckles to its knees once I go into a building.
It’s a mobile network service provider.
It’s costs and price points meet needs or they don’t.
My experience: it works? does what I need it to do? yeah? anything else? idgaf. I’ll just churn to the next service provider when my existing phone gets too old or is unsupported.
brand loyalty is way overrated
Defamation laws are pretty strong in Japan, so I will just say everything positive I have to say about them here:
Been to Hong Kong and currently in Vietnam using their service abroad. 2GB a month and 500 per GB after that. Hasn’t cut out once and pretty decent speeds even in ruralish Vietnam. In Tokyo I haven’t ever had any major problems barring some deep car parks, and when I signed up I got a year free (not on offer anymore). Recently changed to their Hikari as well and that’s free for a year by virtue of using mobile. Sounds like shilling, but genuinely haven’t had any issues and their interfaces on the apps to see your data usage are better than others I’ve seen. Worth it imo.
Edit: also didn’t have internet for 3 weeks when I moved house recently and tether everything through their mobile. Used around 150GB in a month for everything from Zoom meetings to downloading vidya (not online play though lol) and had very few issues. Still paid like 2200 for the month.
If you are a Rakuten power user, go for it. Get the points, signing bonus, and even the home internet(it’s free for the first year or two) If not, other services have better connection
Honestly, it’s fine for me. I’m not a heavy phone user though. But I rarely have issues, although people are correct that sometimes you can lose reception in more rural areas. My rakuten points cover my monthly bill so it’s essentially “free.”
Compared to what mobile carriers were charging and very disadvantageous escape clauses something like 7 years ago (guess it’s somewhat different now), I really can’t complain.
I signed up with them 2 years ago with one of the “1 year free” campaigns (before I was also with them, but on their MVNO that used Docomo towers). That first year (when all the terrible reviews are from), their coverage wasn’t great… I couldn’t even get service inside my work building unless I stood near the windows, and it straight up wouldn’t work in busy transfer stations during rush hour, but y’know, it was free.
It’s improved a lot recently though so I stayed on. That said, you still might struggle to find reception in some underground areas, and sometimes when going out of town, though I haven’t had any problems on the subways (Tokyo). I don’t tend to use much data so I can often scrape in under the 3GB line for the lowest price so the slight trade off is worth it for me. They also have roaming data built in which was nice when I went overseas.
Works just fine for me, not the best coverage in buildings but it’s super cheap and i love the bracket system which is very useful if you need to use more internet in a certain month
outside in metro area = OK
inside of shopping malls = connects usually to partner (AU network)
outdoor, hiking, country side = no signal
Helpdesk is very immature. You basically get what you pay for. Definitely cheapest unlimited LTE.
I’ve had it for over a year now. Has worked flawlessly the whole time, mainly in Tokyo and Fukuoka. I’ve never had the feeling it’s slowed down.
I get 2GB a month of free data abroad too, and that’s worked well also.
I’m happy with them and my s.o is switching to them next week.
Been using it (unlimited data only/mifi router) for almost a year now.
Pros: significantly cheaper than comparable options from the big name carriers, coverage all throughout Tokyo hasn’t been an issue, no slowdowns even after using 100s of GB of data (I stream media nearly all day long), points if you have a Rakuten card
Cons: often buffers while watching things even on lower resolution, a handful of times a week (sometimes daily) service just “dies” even though it shows full signal and device must be reset to regain connection, signal seems disrupted in certain types of buildings and often on the train
Not the best or fastest, but certainly not the worst especially for the price. The big carriers will charge you wayyyy more for a similar plan, but will probably have better service and less issues. If you’re not a stickler for having the best of the best I think it’s a very decent option. If you don’t buy a phone from them and just activate a phone you already have or get a mobile router you can cancel your service at any time with no penalties (that I know of) so it is a great temporary option if you’re looking for that.
If you go too deep into even one story wood framed buildings sometimes it cuts out.
If you go for a weekend up a mountain suddenly you are “roaming” in a partner area and your data is not included in your bundle.
The phone reception is awful. I have to ring people back from within my own apartment from their app.
The up sides are that home internet is free for a year, and their service is cheap, and can be offset to a point of being free if you utilise their point system.
I get the feeling that if the interest rate changes they will go under pretty quickly as their margins are likely abysmal.