For a Cheaper Phone in Japan... Go with an MVNO SIM Card [ Updated ]

Who out there besides me is just fed up with the pricing for phones in Japan? If you raised your hand just now, there is an answer: an mvno. 

The Big 3 in Japan - docomo, au and Softbank - all offer smartphones with good cell coverage and great data speeds, but they're also pretty expensive. You're going to be shelling out around ¥7,000 to ¥9,000 a month, on a two year contract. And that's for not a lot of data, like around 5 to 7 gig. Every 2 years you get a new high-end phone, and submit to another 2 years of the same high rates.

But there is a way out of this. That's where the mvno come in to the rescue.

What is an mvno, you ask? To put it simply, it's a 3rd party mobile carrier (for more info here's the wiki page: mobile virtual network operator). They operate by leasing out bandwidth from one of the Big 3. Then for some restrictions you can get data and/or voice with them for a lot less than what you'd normally pay.

So it it worth it? Is switching to an mvno the way to go?

That's what this post is for. I'm sure a lot of people new to Japan and also people who've been here for ages have thought about how to get a cheaper cell plan, or to get one with more options for data. And I'm sure you have a ton of questions. I did. But I made the jump, so I'm here to report my findings and answer some questions.

For the record I went with mineo but there are a ton of others to choose from. For a list of a bunch of mvno carriers check here at Mondaiji.

But for now lets get to the questions.

1. Is it really cheaper?

The ads on TV all make it look like you'll be saving tons, but this is Japan and we're talking smartphones and monthly bills, so there's always some kind of hidden fees and taxes to drive up the price, right? Nope. Go with an mvno and your bills should go down. Considerably.

Looking at mineo's prices, you have a few options, but basically they go like this: for 3 gig you spend ¥972 a month, for 5 gig it's ¥1,706 and for 10 gig it's ¥2,721 (all based on their data plan for phones from au). That's for data only, no voice. If you want a voice plan on top you pay around ¥650 extra. Rakuten, DMM and the other mvno all have similar plans.

For people like me, who occasionally make calls but use lots of data the price difference is staggering. I look to save over ¥2,000 a month and have a lot more data.

As for calls, most mvno don't have that much in the way of free minutes or anything like that, so you should sign up for a phone number through Skype or another VOIP service. If you are on mineo you can get a LaLaCall number for no monthly fee and the call rates are rather cheap (similar to Skype). There are also other VOIP services out there like 050 that will give you a good deal.

2. How's the reception?

Fantastic. This is the one area I was most worried about before making the switch, but as of now I would have to say all my worries were for nothing.

I've heard a few bad things about certain mvno (and you can search around for data speeds and reception), but for me so far I've been nothing but happy with mineo. They say that in the case of network congestion or at peak hours an mvno may be more susceptible to slowdowns than one of the Big 3, but so far I haven't noticed anything.

At home, at work, and just this weekend while I was hiking in the hills around Kamakura I had just as good of a connection as always. I've also used my new SIM to watch several episodes of Game of Thrones on Hulu in the past week and never once felt like my data speed was any worse than before when I was on au.

3. What phones can I use?

If you want a new phone, no problem. Most mvno offer a few (usually 2nd tier) phones you can get to use with their service. Or better still, you can probably go to Akihabara, Bic Camera or any of the other big electronics stores and find a SIM free phone and that'll work. Just make sure to pick a phone that's compatible with the mvno you want to go with. As Mondaiji said in his blog, most of the mvno have a list somewhere of which handsets have been tested to work (you can search for 端末 or 動作確認端末一覧).

If you have a phone already you want to use, and it's not a SIM free model don't despair. Most of the mvno that operate on docomo's network will work just fine with a docomo handset. And if your phone is an au model there are options, too. Just check Mondaiji's list.

4. So is it hard to get started?

Signing up for an mvno is pretty straightforward. Most of them allow you to sign up online. You need your credit card info and you may have to send an image of your ID to confirm you are who you say you are, but that's about it. If you're getting a data-only SIM you don't need ID in most cases. Of course the signup pages for all of the mvno seem to be in Japanese only, so if you can't do it yourself you may need to ask a friend for help, but don't let that get in the way.

After you sign up then they send you a SIM card in the mail. It took me 3 days to get mine. And once I had the card, I just put it in my iPhone, downloaded a profile from their homepage that changed all of my iPhone's network settings to work right, and boom, I was online.

Some of the mvno may require you to enter the network info manually, but even still it shouldn't be a big problem.

5. Who... is there anything else I should know?

There is an argument that people who make tons of voice calls shouldn't get an mvno plan. Most of the Big 3 now have a plan for smartphones that gives you unlimited calls and texts, plus 5 gig of data. But... how much does that really save you? OK, if you get an mvno SIM and use their calling plan alone it could get expensive. But why would you do that? If you get an mvno you need to get Skype or some other data based calling service.

As for reception I was hesitant, I'll be honest. But my phone seems to connect just fine. Of course you probably want to do a bit of searching to see which mvno service will be best for you (I recommend a search for "mvno 通信 比較").

Oh, there is one thing to think about, and that's number portability (MNP). Some of the mvno take a few days for the SIM card to arrive and during that time you may not be able to make phone calls at all if you had to cancel your old number. In my case since I went with a data-only SIM it didn't matter. I was making calls surfing the web on my iPhone seconds before and seconds after I got the new SIM without a hitch.

If anyone has questions or needs help with the Japanese on the review sites, you can ask me in the comments section below.

Also, if you want a huge ton of info in Japanese, here's a link that may give you some help at Survive-M.com: 格安SIMカード12社をとことん比較. It has a massive list of how much each plan costs for each of 12 mvno companies.

Otherwise, I would say just go for it.

Update (5/14):

The other day when I woke up, I noticed something funny on my phone. It said "out of service area." This isn't the first time I've ever seen this since using a smartphone, so it isn't just because of my mvno SIM. After turning on and off airplane mode it fixed itself.

But after this I decided to do a little real testing, to see just how good my connection actually was. I downloaded a speedtester app, and tested the connection and made note of how many bars I had at the time for a few days.

Testing in the evening at home I was getting around 30 Mbps up and down on my home wifi network. Kick ass, right? Gotta love fast internet in Tokyo. Switching off wifi and doing a test I got around 3.5 down and 7.5 up in the evening and just before bed. I had 3 of 5 bars (or dots I should say since it's an iPhone) at the time. The connection felt good. Maybe not quite as fast as what I had before on au, but not as bad as I thought it might be.

The next morning I had a full strength connection and didn't bother to test. At work at 10:30 that morning on my break I tested it and got 16 down and 3.5 up. So that's really good. And that night at dinner time I was getting 2.75 down and 2 up.

And so on. From what I can tell after switching to a mvno my ability to get a phone signal and a data connection hasn't got any worse. The speed is reduced, more in the evening around dinner time than any other time, and it's also reduced after 10PM, but I'm still getting enough speed to watch videos and do whatever I want, so it doesn't feel like a tradeoff at all.