Discussion Forum

• 倍金萬
• 2021/10/23 (Sat) 11:02
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Although each US cell phone carrier advertises that their cell phones "work" when travelers take them abroad, they are in effect paying a minimal fee to the carrier in that country, and as a result, the call/data capabilities in that country should be set to a minimum.

Therefore, smart travelers don't rely on the telecom company's service and find a free WiFi environment, especially in urban areas, where they can communicate as much as they want. In my case, however, I travel only in the suburbs, rural areas, and mountainous regions of Shikoku by foot, so I use my cell phone only to make reservations at lodgings. Most of the hotels are "minshuku" level private houses, which do not even have WiFi.

• 倍金萬
• 2021/10/25 (Mon) 10:32
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As I mentioned in another topic, I thought the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile was 50/50, but in reality, T-Mobile seems to have swallowed up Sprint.

I mentioned this somewhere, but when I went to a T-Mobile store and asked them to change my SIM card, they told me that if I switched my account to T-Mobile, they would give me $ 70 per month, and I thought it was a good deal, so I agreed. Today I checked my new credit card account and found that Sprint charged $ 101.11 in September and $ 70.00 from October. This amount includes my wife and I's two phones (2 Lines). Well, I guess it will go up eventually.

The service has not changed much from Sprint's time as follows.

$ 70.00 for 2 Lines

includes all applicable discounts and promotions. Taxes and fees included.

Talk&text
Unlimited

High-speed data
Unlimited 5G&4G LTE with 100GB of Premium Data

Mobile Unlimited mobile hotspot data at max 3G speeds after 5GB.

Unlimited 5G&4G LTE with 100GB of Premium Data,

What am I supposed to make of this? Is it unlimited up to 100GB, or is it unlimited with very slow speeds after 100GB? Well, we don't use our phone line much since we use almost 100% of our data under our home WiFi, and even when we were on Sprint, we used at most a few hundred "mega-mega" per month.


There is another topic discussing Hotspot/Tethering capacity, but our account is capped at 5GB, which we don't use at all. It is useful. However, the data speed in Japan seems to be 3G and sometimes video does not run smoothly.

• むっちゃスロー
• 2021/10/28 (Thu) 13:05
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Double Kim Man,
I am not asking for information on out-of-country connectivity for the SPRINT line that is being discontinued. I am posting this because I thought it might be my personal phone model, and I wanted to know how other T-mobile users and other carriers are using it in Japan.

Before Corona, I used to travel back and forth to Japan every 3 months for work, so I used to rent pocket Wi-Fi before I went with Sprint, then I bought a Japanese pocket Wi-Fi and used the data carrier of my choice.　But when you have even one more device, you have more things to charge and manage, and it gets complicated.
When I switched to Sprint, my data was crisp and unlimited and very convenient.

I don't want to have to worry about recharging my pocket wi-fi again, and I don't want to be stuck with T-mobile, which has cut back on service.
AT&How is the WIFI connection speed in Japan for T and Verizon users?

• 倍金萬
• 2021/10/29 (Fri) 11:02
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＞ I am not asking for information about your connections outside the country

Well, I am very sorry about that. I have a bad habit of blabbing to people everything I know.


＞ I wanted to know how other T-mobile users and other carriers are doing in Japan

I was with Verizon before I switched to Sprint. I brought my Verizon phone to Japan and the connection was not so good. Moreover, Verizon/AT&T charges a fee for the use of their phones in Japan. Also, I imagine that the current 3 major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile) are all Softbank, whose coverage ・ and communication capabilities in Japan are a step lower than those of the other 3 carriers. And I am assuming that the data speed is still 3G. If you have a definite opinion that this is not true, please let me know here.

＞ It's a hassle to worry about charging pocket Wi-Fi and having to carry it around

That's true. However, if you are going to upload your own videos to YouTube while traveling in Japan, I think you will have to rent a paid pocket Wi-Fi. If you can get a good Wi-Fi connection at the hotel where you will be staying, that would be the best choice, but I would not recommend renting a pocket Wi-Fi.

• 倍金萬
• 2021/10/29 (Fri) 11:47
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＞ Verizon/AT&T charges a fee to use a phone in Japan


When I brought my Verizon contract phone to Japan 5 or 6 years ago,

I was charged cents per minute for calls over ? I had to pay cents per minute if the total minutes of the call exceeded 5 minutes, and for data, I had to pay for the amount of data over a certain number of megabytes.