Came from DMM Mobile (under Docomo line) that got purchased by Rakuten Mobile. When a friend who is an employee of Rakuten asked me to changed (he was being pressured to bring more people), I thought it was not going to be a huge change due to being a DMM Mobile user before. BIG MISTAKE
I live in Odawara. DMM was not amazing, but it did work and I did not get missed calls. My issues with RM are beyond the normal bad data signal people talk about.
With Rakuten Mobile, I have not been able to receive a single phone call for the last month. First, it started with the phone ringing and me not being able to pick it up. Then, they started to go to missed calls directly.
My husband is worse, he gets no missed calls nor his phone rings. His job was upset due to him not picking up calls, and yesterday his boss called him in front of him. For the boss, the phone was ringing, for my husband he never received the call nor the missed call.
We do not use the phone much, but we need to be able to receive phone calls… the other day we had to call the police, and neither one of us had signal to make the call, not from their app, not from the normal call app. I thought emergency calls would always work…
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I am DONE.
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What MVNO do you recommend?
21 comments
Not an MVNO, go with Ahamo. You get 20GB of international roaming as well.
Look into Ahamo or Povo depending on how much you use it.
I moved to Mineo and very satisfied so far. It is at the top rank in Kakaku review. I really like the 1.5mbps minimum bandwidth on top of my monthly 20gbs. Most of the time i turn-off my normal giga because 1.5mbps is enough for most case. I stream music in the car, watch youtube with it no issues. Tech support is top notch too.
I’m with yahoo mobile which (afaik) is under SoftBank. I pay 4050 ¥ for 15 gb. I rarely face issues, only when I am in the middle of nowhere.
I have been using it for 3 years already.
But I saw recently a campaign for AU which offers 20 and even 100 gbs for like 4900Â¥ not sure if AU is a good one
I would vote for ahamo or linemo, both come with 20GB and comparable prices. Linemo also has a 3GB plan for 990 yen. There are some campaigns with Linemo, such as Cashback or data increase etc.–worth checking.
If you like to customize your monthly plan, I’d say look at povo 2.0. You can top up whatever you want, at whenever time.
I also used Rakuten and the bar only one or two so I will also switch. Does anyone know what is the necessary document to switch to a new sim card and can you keep the old number?
OCN was great and cheap.
Never had issues with Y!Mobile.
DM me and I will tell you a truck to get unlimited internet for less than 1000 yen. Don’t want to put it out here and get in trouble because of some sub rules
You should take a look at iijmio. It is insanely cheap and uses the DoCoMo network. I pay 990 a month for 5gb and they have a tonne of other plans at very reasonable prices. I live in Gunma and have traveled over a wide area of northern Japan and never had an issue with coverage.
https://www.iijmio.jp/
> What MVNO do you recommend?
You get what you pay for. Go with one of the big carriers or with one of their cheaper subsidiaries. That means Docomo, AU, or even Softbank. Or the cheaper alternatives Ahamo, UQ Mobile, or Yahoo Mobile.
I would stick with Docomo/Ahamo or AU/UQ.
I used to use nuro mobile, and it worked fine.
If you want the most flexibility, mineo offers both kddi au and NTT docomo based lines.
I’m using Povo. Completely satisfied 🙂
Rakuten mobile used to be fine for me when I was using pixel 5. I “upgraded” to a pixel 7 and I had constant connection problems. In the end I switched to Ahamo and it’s been working much better.
I have used iijimo for many years, it was great but for me the internet speed was lacking. I moved to Linemo 3 years ago when they started, and so far no problems at all. My payments are never over 3,600 I believe.
I like LineMo. The website is very functional, and although it’s all in Japanese, the menus aren’t images but text, so I can use automatic translation (yes, the bar for Japanese websites is that low).
Currently using Linemo (living in Kobe), and really happy with its service. One of the factors that pushed me into picking Linemo was because it was cheap (no registration charge, insurance charge or even shipping charge) and good network coverage by Softbank.
Good network coverage and service is really something that needs to be taken into consideration, when you have official calls coming, and you can’t miss them.
Linemo unlike Rakuten does not have automatic payment scaling according to your usage nor does it have unlimited data, but the 3GB or 20GB package speed is really good and so is the connectivity. Unfortunately, after the data capped is reached you will be stuck with 300kbps or 1Mbps, which still does the day to day related tasks (paying with paypay/browsing Facebook or IG) albeit being ultra slow.
Also because Linemo is LINE centric, you can always use LINE at highest speed and it isn’t effected by data cap; so that’s also a plus for me, as a I communicate on LINE a lot.
Lastly, currently Linemo is offering free domestic voice calls under 5 minutes for a year and multiple paypay cashback campaigns.
Hope these information help you out a bit.
I have tried Line, Povo, and Ahamo and stuck with Ahamo due to it having an add-on option for cellular Apple Watch support. In my experience, particularly recently, Ahamo speeds tend to drop in congested parts of Tokyo during peak commuting hours. Other than that, service has been consistent and acceptable. Their pricing for what you get is more than respectable. Povo is incredibly flexible. I have a Povo e-sim on my phone that I can activate and top-up if I’m ever in a situation that requires more data or an alternative to throttled/spotty connectivity with Ahamo. Line was fine, too.
Basically they’re all reasonable. I would recommend them in this order: Ahamo, Povo, Line.
Well any mvno with docomo should be fine.
if you and your husband are planning to switch, maybe iijmio family plan might be suitable. I have no impression or complain in the past with iijmio.
ahamo is good if you use around that much data monthly.
Just wanna add, whatever you choose, I recommend you to come to BicCamera or Yodobashi and talk to the seller. They usually have point campaign. I got 15,000 yen worth of points. I myself went with UQ mobile and have no problem so far.
Anyone here using Sakura mobile? I’ve been using it for 3+ years now and never had any issues.