telephone Archives - Wanderwiles

I’m posting onboard ship in the port of Otaru using a Japanese data SIM card I bought on eBay before leaving the U.S. I bought 2 of these cards which are by the Japanese company, Docomo, which my research showed to have the best coverage in Japan. The cards are for 8 days each, so we plan to use them back-to-back during our stay in Japan, using my Galaxy S7 phone as a hotspot for David’s Galaxy S7s and our laptop. Each card is described as “4G LTE, 3GB/8 days, unlimited.” The cards cannot be used with HTC, Blackberry, dual SIM phones or any smartphones made in China.

The card starting working in the wee hours this morning, while we were at sea off the Japanese coast, but still some hours from the port of Otaru. The signal is strong and fast and both David’s Galaxy S7 Android phone and the laptop are connecting well with my phone’s hotspot.

I paid $26.98 for both cards, including shipping from Hong Kong. It took about 20 days for the cards to arrive, which was within the vendor’s estimated shipping time. He was very responsive to my questions and had good reviews, so I felt reasonably comfortable making the purchase. We might could have bought the cards in Japan and I read that visitor SIM cards are sold at Narita Airport. But, we are arriving by ship in Otaru where I could find no information about such SIMs and, even if we did find them, I had concerns about language issues. I also didn’t want to spend my limited time ashore looking for and waiting in a shop anyway if I didn’t have to. Given the reasonable price on eBay, it seemed a no-brainer to me.

I chose data-only SIM cards because we don’t really care about making calls–and should we need to, we can usually call for free using Google. The Internet, i.e., data, is what we really want and need for Google Maps, researching local sites, texting with home via WhatsApp, email, etc. Anyway, so far, so good!

UPDATE: I’ve been using the Docomo card for four days now and am generally happy. Sometimes, the connection is a little slow, but for the most part it’s been really good. Also, some of the sluggishness may be due to being offshore and to having other devices using my phone as a hotspot. Most impressive of all, not only did I retain connection when we were on a ship 15 miles off the Japanese coast, but I was even able to make a 30+ minute call to my son in the U.S. on WhatsApp with excellent quality…and for free!

The trans-Atlantic cruise that launched our Balkan adventure stopped in Dubrovnik before dropping us off in Venice. I’d been to Dubrovnik before and we knew we’d return, so our priority on the cruise stop was to buy a visitor SIM card so we’d be ready to roll when we came back to Croatia 2.5 weeks later. I’d done some research and knew there were no phone stores selling SIM cards in Old Town Dubrovnik, but they are sold at the post office.

Browsing our options at the old town post office, I chose the “Vipme internet,” a fantastic bargain at 20 kuna ($3), including tax. For that price, I got a data SIM card with 2G worth of data at 1G/day (ie., two days’ worth of Internet). The system is set up perfectly for travelers: your gig allotment is in 24 hour increments that begin when you actually access the internet with your card. So, if you don’t need the card for a day, you don’t get charged. I figured we’d use the card that day and then on our first day back in Croatia later in the trip. After that, we could buy charge up slips at any phone store, post office or most convenience stores at a rate of about $1.50/day. What a deal!

The lady who sold me the card at the post office knew very little about them, but did agree to help me with activation since the instructions were in Croatian (a major downside) until you reached a certain web page with English. Unfortunately (and here comes the caveat), she mistakenly exited the page where we were to confirm the plan and activate. I saw what she was doing, but couldn’t stop her in time. I did not realize that a different plan was chosen by default. The result was that she mistakenly registered me for a plan which included other features (calls, texts, etc.) and charged at a much higher usage rate which quickly burned up my 2G credit. I didn’t realize her mistake until after we’d left and I had lost all access to the Internet.

When I did get wi-fi and tried to choose a different plan, I was never sure I’d done things correctly. This meant that when we returned to Dubrovnik we had to catch a short bus ride out of the Old Town to a phone shop and get the whole mess sorted out. The good news is that they did sort it out, and also credited me back for my lost $3; not much compensation for the hassle, but nice of them nonetheless. Thereafter, the SIM card worked perfectly and we had cheap, reliable internet virtually everywhere we went in Croatia at $1.50/day.

Vipme is now offering weekly packages for 80 kuna ($12) with a cheap daily rate option. http://www.vipnet.hr/tourist-offer/en If you activate correctly, the price and product are excellent.

[The post office in Old Town Dubrovnik is a block off the main avenue, Stradun, on the corner of Široka ulica and ulica od Puča. The VIP store is at Vukovarska ul. 7, 20000, Dubrovnik in an old bank building. The bus stop at the Tommy shopping center is the closest. You can ask a bus driver to alert you to the stop.]

Tag: telephone

Japanese Docomo SIM cards

Croatian SIM card: a bargain and a caveat