About the characteristics of Japanese cell phone companies
When you sign up for a cell phone contract in Japan, you should consider whether the quality of your calls or the price is more important to you.
Because In Japan, there are two main types of cell phone companies.
One is the company that owns the phone lines. And the other is the company that leases the phone line.
The company that owns the phone line is called MNO (Mobile Network Operator).
The company that leases phone lines is called a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator).
This page describes the characteristics of MNOs.MVNOs and their respective companies.
If you are interested, please read it.
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“What is MNO ＆ MVNO？” The mobile phone you should sign up for is ！
There are four MNO companies in Japan.
Docomo (Japan)
KDDI (au)
Softbank
Rakuten
These four companies are MNO with their own phone lines.
Docomo., KDDI, and Softbank are cell phone companies that have been operating in Japan for over 20 years.
rakuten is a new cell phone company that began operations in 2020.
The advantage of these four MNO is stable phone lines with their own phone lines.
The disadvantage is higher usage fees compared to MVNOs.
However, in the past, MNO charges were very expensive.
Now, these four companies were guided by the government.
And they have launched sub-brands and have become quite inexpensive cell phones.
If you come to Japan and sign up for a cell phone contract, I would recommend you MNO sub-brand.
Because MNO phone lines are of high quality.
Therefore, MNO phone lines are stable 24 hours a day.
However, MVNOs have a congested time zone.
These times are during commuting hours from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., during lunch breaks from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., when leaving work or school from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and when returning home from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m.
During these hours, it is difficult for MVNOs to view videos or download applications on their cell phones.
This page describes each MNO and MVNO by their features.
If you are considering to sign a phone, please check our page comparing MNO and MVNO line phone recommendations.
As for MNO, there are currently 9 brands.
The main brands are docomo, au, Softbank, and Rakuten mobile.
Shop-based sub-brands UQ Mobile, Y Mobile
Online only brands ahamo, povo, linemo
As for MVNOs, there are more than 100 brands.
MINEO, OCN mobile one, IIjmio, LIBMO, NURO mobile, BIGLOBE mobile, are some of the most popular ones.
We will introduce the features of each of them on this page.
Docomo, au, Softbank “Main brands of major MNO companies”
Docomo, au, and Softbank are the main brands of major cell phone companies.
These three companies have built radio towers all over Japan.
Therefore, the phone lines are of very high quality.
The advantages and disadvantages of these three brands are
Advantages
High-quality Internet and telephone lines are available 24 hours a day.
High-volume data users have unlimited access to high-quality phone lines at appropriate prices.
Other sub-brands are more expensive than these three brands for high volume use.
The signal quality is better than the same unlimited MVNO line.
Disadvantages
If you use less than 25GB of data per month, it will be quite expensive.
If you want to enjoy videos and internet games anytime and anywhere as much as you want, these three brands are recommended.
Rakuten Mobile, “New MNO company”
Rakuten mobile is a recently established company.
Rakuten Mobile offers several attractive plans that compete with docomo, au, and Softbank. Unlimited data usage and high quality lines are available at a very reasonable price.
However, rakuten mobile has few signal towers.
Advantages and disadvantages of rakuten mobile are
Advantages
It is cheap as an MNO and has many attractive plans.
Disadvantage
Small signal coverage area.
If you are going to sign a contract with rakuten mobile, you are advised to check if your home, office, and other places of activities are within the coverage area of rakuten mobile.
UQ Mobile & Y Mobile “MNO shop-based cheap sub-brands”
UQ Mobile is shop-based sub-brand of au.
Y Mobile is shop-based sub-brand of Softbank.
These two use MNO phone lines, so high-quality phone lines can be used.
These two companies have stable calls and internet 24 hours a day.
These two companies are a bit more expensive than the MNO’s internet-only brand ahamo,povo,linemo.
This is because they are shop-based and therefore require labor and store fees.
However, the shoo-based sub-brand is recommended for those who do not like to go through the process on the Internet.
The advantages and disadvantages of UQ Mobile and Y Mobile are
Advantages
Cheapest plan up to 25GB with high quality phone line
Support is available in stores.
Disadvantages
Slightly more expensive due to store-based compared to ahamo.povo.linemo, an online-only brand of high-quality MNOs.
Many of the phones available in the stores are old and of low quality.
UQ Mobile and Y Mobile are high quality and low priced phone lines.
The worst part is that the branded phones they carry are old and of low quality.
If you want a high quality phone, buy a good phone and make it sim free.
Then sign up with UQ Mobile or Y Mobile, pick up a sim card, and load it into your phone.
ahamo, povo，linemo “MNO online store brands”
ahamo,povo,linemo are exclusive online brands.
In 2021, the Japanese government issued a directive on cell phone rates, which are high compared to other countries.
This led to the creation of these three brands.
ahamo is docomo’s online-only brand.
povo is an online-only brand of au.
linemo is Softbank’s online-only brand.
These three brands are MNO companies.
These three brands have their own stable phone lines.
Since they are online-only, you need to do all the procedures on the Internet.
And these three brands do not have human support phone service in the stores.
When you have a question, you need to ask it in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or chat on the homepage on the Internet.
The advantages and disadvantages of ahamo povo linemo are
Advantages
Low price and high quality phone line for up to 25GB.
A little cheaper than UQ Mobile.Y Mobile
Disadvantages
No storefront or phone support, so you have to do all the application and procedures yourself.
You have to look up FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or chat with them to solve anything you don’t understand
If you can handle everything on the Internet, you can sign up with ahamo, povo, or linemo.
But it is really difficult for those who are not good at Japanese.
MINEO, OCN mobile one, IIjmio, LIBMO, NURO mobile, BIGLOBE mobile, etc. “Representative MVNO brand”
There are more than 100 brands of MVNOs.
Some of the most popular are MINEO, OCN mobile one, IIjmio, LIBMO, NURO mobile, BIGLOBE mobile, etc.
If you sign up for an MVNO, a SIM card is delivered to you.
You then plug in that SIM card yourself and start operating.
MVNOs are cell phone companies that rent the signal from the towers built by the four MNOs (docomo.au.Softbank.rakuten).
Therefore, MVNOs have very inexpensive cell phone rate plans.
MVNOs are cheaper than MNO online-only plans and sub-brands.
However, at times when there are more cell phone users, MNO companies give priority to phone their lines to their own users.
Therefore, MVNOs have difficulty using the Internet and phone during times of high usage.
These hours are as follows
Commuting and school hours from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
During lunch breaks from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.
Leaving work or school hours from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
During the hours after returning home from 9:00pm to 11:00pm
These hours are not always slower.
However, when MVNOs slow down due to congestion on their phone lines, Internet site browsing, messenger, and email can be used a little slower.
Video browsing and application downloads are difficult.
And many MVNOs are the type of operation that do not have stores.
Therefore, procedures, changes, and troubleshooting must be done over the Internet.
The advantages and disadvantages of MVNOs are
Advantages
Low price
Disadvantage
Phone lines are sometimes unstable and difficult to connect.
Everything must be handled over the Internet.
If you can handle the process over the internet, and you are ok with slow signal lines at times, then I would recommend mvno cell phone to you.
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