Micro - FreeTel Data SIM for Japan

I wanted to provide an in-depth review of this prepaid SIM. I purchased the micro SIM because they ran out of the nano SIM. I cut it down with my cutter. I have a T-mobile phone with free global roaming so I intended on using the sim in one of two devices: (1) unlocked iPhone 5c with personal hotspot enabled or (2) an unlocked Novatel Mifi 2 (from Freedompop). I wanted to be able to share the connection between my wife's iPhone and my phone in case the free global data was too slow. Before I left, I emailed the profile to myself for the iPhone and made sure it was downloaded to the iPhone 5c. I also preconfigured the APN on the Mifi 2.I had intended on using the iPhone 5c since it was a model that was used in Japan befoore and had all the correct bands. I placed the sim in the iPhone 5c, installed the profile and we were up and running on LTE! I used Speedtest and saw speeds around 3 mbps at Narita airport. It would have worked great had it not been for iOS tendency to go to sleep. If my phone was connected, the personal hotspot would stay up and running. However if my wife's iPhone was the only phone connected, when it goes to sleep, the wifi would shutdown. This created problems when I tried to Whatsapp her and her phone was shown as off. And after a while, the iPhone 5c hosting the personal hotspot would go to sleep. So when my wife went to check her iPhone, the hotspot was gone. By the second day, I got fed up with this behavior and move the SIM to the Mifi 2.I knew the Mifi 2 had only one band available in Japan and it was on HSPA with no LTE. So I thought connectivity would be limited. Though speed wasn't the fastest at about 300-400 kbps, it was certainly better than my 10 kbp T-mobile was pulling. At least, the wifi would stay up (I configured it to not sleep; something I can't do on the iPhone 5c). I expected the coverage to be good in the big cities we were in (Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Okayama, Himeji and Hiroshima), but I found I had coverage on the train between cities and in small towns/stations like Araishiyama, Tobu-Nikko and Kinugawa-onsen. We also had a pocket wifi that some of the places we stayed at let us use that were connecting on Wimax and even those didn't cover the smaller towns. That was a big surprise.In closing, I know I kind of deviated but I wanted to share my experience. I couldn't find anyone who tried this sim in a Mifi 2 so I can say it works and the sim itself works well even at HSPA speeds. Connectivity was more important than speed and it worked well. I highly recommend this if you plan on going to Japan and want internet connectivity.

My iphone is 4, so did not work. I did not know before purchased it.

I used this SIM on my unlocked AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5, and it worked great for the most part. The SIM is on NTT Docomo's LTE bands 1, 3, 19, and 21. My S5 was only compatible with the bands 1 and 3. I've read that the band 1 is Docomo's main frequency in major cities, and the band 19 is used in the rural areas. That is probably why I had good coverages in Tokyo, but not so much in Nagano. My recommendation is that, before you buy this product, check your phone's compatible bands and make sure it can handle at least some of the bands listed above.

Very helpful for our Japanese vacation. Easily swapped into Samsung phones for wife and daughter. They never felt limited in the data allowance on out two week vacation - they used Pinterest, videos, websites, even downloaded Netflix movies and TV shows and still came home with about 300-400 MB each. Highly recommended for ease of installation and ability to use Freetel throughout Japan.

This sim card was perfect! I was in Japan for 18 days and 2 gigs was more than enough to use. I left it on Data - took my phone off wifi - and it was quick and easy. Able to use google translate, google maps and post pictures to Facebook. I still had 1/2 gig left!

We used this on our ten year anniversary trip to Japan. It was a lifesaver! We are recommending it to all of our globetrotting friends!

I used it in Okinawa. I was there for 10 days and didn't have any problems.

Works as advertised.