Wifi/cell service recent experience?

[ssgtravel]

Anyone with recent experience using either an e-sim card or pocket wifi in the parks? I am reading a lot of conflicting information on which is the best option. We will have two phones and e-sims would be the cheapest option, if it works.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

We found the wifi to be very hit and miss at the TDR parks and hotels. We opted for international cell coverage with our phone carrier for the few days we were there ($10/$12 per day).

 

[Smugpugmug]

I used Ubigi in November and had 0 issues with it in the parks or anywhere in Japan.

 

[gmi3804]

I used Ubigi in November and had 0 issues with it in the parks or anywhere in Japan.

Is that eSIM or pocket WiFi?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Is that eSIM or pocket WiFi?

eSIM.

 

[brentm77]

Anyone with recent experience using either an e-sim card or pocket wifi in the parks? I am reading a lot of conflicting information on which is the best option. We will have two phones and e-sims would be the cheapest option, if it works.

I used an e-sim from Jetpac. It was too slow at times, but seemed to always at least work. It was a very inexpensive option for more data that I came close to using and worked everywhere we went outside of the parks too.

 

[gelatoni fan]

As of this month, I had better data with Gigsky than T-mobile roaming which is a reversal of my experience before this year. I think T-mobile experiences worse deprioritization than Gigsky now.

eSIMs work well if you have a device that can connect to all the Japanese network bands. So the newer the phone, the better. If you have iPhones and android devices released in the same year, odds are the iPhone will work better. The US uses different 5G technology from Japan so phones purchased in Canada and Guam will work better than devices purchased in the mainland US.

Ubigi runs on docomo but since Gigsky and T-mobile primarily use Softbank, I don't have recent experience with docomo. I suspect Ubigi is still good though because they are less likely to be deprioritized and Softbank's decommissioning of 3G is what caused a lot of eSIMs to have worse connectivity now compared to the beginning of this year.

I expect all pocket wifi to be deprioritized heavily and wouldn't trust them unless you only have older android phones from the US.

 

[jimmymc]

I also used a Ubigi eSIM, and it worked well everywhere in the parks. The hotels have wifi, but the parks only have it near the entrances, so you'll need some kind of data while in the parks.

 

[Kwami]

I used a pocket WiFi from Japan Wireless at the parks in October. We had two modern Android phones (Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro). It all worked flawlessly in the parks and everywhere else that we traveled in Japan. We were on the Softbank network, which didn't seem to be deprioritizing us at all. The pocket WiFi device didn't support 5G connections, though.

I also tried T-Mobile roaming a few times just to see how well it worked. I had a solid connection just about everywhere, but it was slow. I'm on an older, grandfathered plan that only provides free data at 256 Kbps, though. None of that "first 5GB is high speed" stuff for me!

 

[AquaDame]

We have a pocket wifi we use on flights, but when we're on the ground its eSIM all the way. Carrying an extra device and making sure we stay near it at all times, keep it powered on and connected etc is more of a pain than just... using a phone. We use Airalo and have been happy with their pricing and how many regional eSIM they have. We're planning on using it again for our SE Asia trip and it will cover every country we're hitting with one eSIM. I chew through data playing games and using maps so my 5GB 30 day will be $20. If I got just Japan it'd be $11.50. We've used it in Japan a few times and never had issues, even when we were way up in Hokkaido driving around rural areas. We do sometimes have to manually try different carriers in settings to find the fastest one but then we just stick with it. The auto selected one is not always the best. The only place it failed on me was the Bahamas about four years ago - we went back last month and I had no issues so whatever it was was clearly fixed.

 

[mathgeek]

I was just there over Christmas. I rented a pocked WiFi from Japan Wireless, and it worked great for the entire 6 days we were in the parks.

 

[ssgtravel]

Returning to report that we used Ubigi and Gigsky e-sims while in Tokyo and in the parks and had no issues with either. Ubigi was very cost effective. Gigsky was used only because we had purchased a longer package primarily for a cruise and the land portion. was included in that.

 

[Selket]

I was there late February (just got back) and Ubigi e-sim worked great for all of us the entire trip. No issues connecting at the parks either.