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Japan's top 3 mobile carriers to scrap cancelation fees

17 Comments

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17 Comments
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Yeah all three of these providers are crooks and overcharge. Like another poster said, you can just use MVPN service provider and get 100gb of data for less than 5k yen. Basically the same thing, just piggybacking off the major providers networks

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The service is indeed miserable and it’s all quite a grey zone. I wanted a second SIM with the same number as my smartphone, for my smartwatch receiving calls when the phone is out of reach. Nope. They don’t need orders or money, it seems. But no, they have other sources of bigger income…A friend of our’s canceled for changing the provider and had to pay in sum 50,000 because there were two months left for the phone contract and the tablet he was once told to be free turned out to be connected with another number and even a three year contract. He paid it all together just to finish in that minefield. Those phone companies guys are really semi-criminal. No joke.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Cell phone plans in Japan are highway robbery. They charge you an arm, leg and kidney only to give you next to nothing. And there a whole bunch of hidden service fees. It's madness.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Rakuten Mobile is free up to 1GB, 980yen up to 3GB. Maximum 3k~yen for unlimited.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

More work needs to be done by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to bring these businesses under control and promote fair, legal, and free competition.

Good luck with this. Price fixing is technically illegal (so Japan can virtue signal at global summits), but cartel behaviour is the rule, not the exception. Check the beer fridge in your local convenience store and see.

The carriers infantilise their users (or should that be 'usees?') with complex jargon and piddling discounts prominent in their menus of big ticket fees. They sit on Everests of cash, can buy regulators with cushy Amakudari jobs, and fines - if any are levied - are a joke.

But Japan is a mature market. How else are these poor companies meant to grow?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Those that have contracts with carriers other than DOCOMO might remember having no connection after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Well being a DOCOMO subscriber I had no loss of connection at all, but I was not able to contact anyone who was not a DOCOMO subscriber. This shows why others a cheaper... In emergency you can't rely on them!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I think the providers are making good progress nonetheless. Cheaper plans, now the scrapped cancelation fee. People that complain about the big 3 being unethical or whatever - it's the same business as in any other country. Look at the early termination fees of the US providers like Verizon..

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

When the law changed to allow customers to buy unlocked phones, I went around several shops and asked to buy an unlocked phone-I was told no!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

We use Line Mobile, the predecessor to LineMo. (It doesn't make sense for us to switch to LineMo, as our current plans costs less, ¥1480 for voice & 10gb with carryover of unused data. And, if one of us uses less than 500mb, which is entirely possible being home much of the time on wi-fi, that line is free!)

No CXL fee, iirc. Maybe ¥1000, which is like ¥0 anyway. But, I see no reason to switch right now, regardless.

I've never understood why people go with the big three. At the very least, they should choose one of the discount brands that the big three offer, if they feel more comfortable with one of the big guys: UQMobile or Povo (from au), Ahamo (from docomo), and Y!Mobile or LineMo (from softbank).

2 ( +3 / -1 )

These 3 were such a ripoff that I switched to Rakuten Mobile. I pay 1,900 yen/month for about the same service at Docomo for 6,000 yen which was the cheapest I could get.

Before smartphones, these companies often charged about 2-3000 yen per month. I know the options were much less but mobile communication was a lot more affordable. When smartphones came around, they saw a golden opportunity to gouge their customers and they went at it without abandon until the govt finally stepped in a couple of years ago.

All three carriers in my town have all moved into much nicer, brand new and bigger buildings in all the toniest locations in the last 10 years.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

As I have always believed the mobile carriers in Japan are among the most unethical businesses I have ever come across. More work needs to be done by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to bring these businesses under control and promote fair, legal, and free competition.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Internet service provider still charging cancellation fee, for now.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Way too late for millions out there.

14 ( +14 / -0 )

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