I wish I had read this post 4 weeks ago, as I just got back from Japan. I had ordered the very same b-mobile card via amazon.com. It arrived with Japanese only instructions, the English help phone line had meager opening hours and was constantly busy.
Best was that on top of the 3000+ Yen price tag, the instructions (according to my wife) say that for verification you need an active mobile number in Japan (duh!), if not, they can set up an account for you for another 2500¥ …
So, I ended up sending it back. Next time I will check the airport pick up option.
uK resident here, when I travel to Europe I buy a Lebara card for each country off Amazon or Lebara themselves. They are super helpful, easy to setup for data and calls very cheap. All controlled via the browser for topups etc. If coming to UK buy a Three PAYG card as this is such a Geat deal for a fast connection and calls.
Japan is not the wi-fi wonderland … the only place I know where you can find open / free wifi are the apple stores … unlike the US, where every restaurant offers free wifi now … not so in Japan … though I even found a wifi signal on a bus (!), you need to be a paying customer of one of the big providers to access this …
Mobile Vikings in Belgium are awesome. Their website is in French, Dutch, and English. SIM card was mailed to the hotel I was staying at, arriving the day after I ordered it. No issues topping up as I went along… And it was cheap as well.
if you can get the virgin / bell ipad sim working (sure on the address requirements) it will cost 35$ for up to 5GB, ihttp://www.bell.ca/Mobility/Cell_phone_plans/Tablet_PC_data_plans/30_Day_Pass.tab On top of that, i d recommend www.fongo.com for a Canadian number if you in a major city. It will be local, and uses a meg a minute for call time, so 1gb is about a 1000mins. Works brilliantly over lte. if you need texts out going, i think its 2$ for 1 month of texts.
Our 3 SIM cost £0.01 and we got 150 MB of data just for topping it up, then it was £0.01/MB so we had over 1 GB for just £10. Super easy and it did cheap calls and texts, too.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll be sure never to use Rebelfone ever! I’ve had a few bad experiences myself and would recommend http://www.gosim.com/ because they’re very cheap and have good customer service too.
Another option is DOODAD. I ordered one for travelling in Europe. A little pricey, but it’s nice that they work in most countries so I didn’t have to swap SIM cards while moving around. They are at www.getadoodad.com
