Japan Mobile Tech

One million pageviews

2013-04-18T08:45:00.000+09:00

Nicholas noticed that the blogger dashboard stats were creeping towards a million page views and figured we'd hit it around mid April. However, I've never fully trusted the information blogger displays, so I checked our actual Analytics account.

Turns out this post is about 300,000 pageviews to slow because it appears that we passed one million quite some time ago. At the same time that the dashboard was displaying 1,000,837 pageviews, Analytics was displaying 1,356,654.

Thanks to all the readers and contributors, we finally have a place to go for reliable English information on Japanese mobile carriers, phones, and plans!

Japanese Mobiles to get 070 prefix from November 2013

2013-04-01T14:33:00.001+09:00

Japan uses preallocated prefixes for particular types of phone numbers. Currently, 090 and 080 numbers are reserved for mobile phones, 070 is for PHS, and 050 is for a particular type of IP Phone.

At first, mobiles used only 090 with additional prefixes allocated as needed, starting with 080 in around 2005 and now 070. Only a portion of 070 will be used for mobile; a chunk of numbers will remain PHS.

Mobile: 070-1 to 4 and 070-7 to 9
PHS: 070-5 and 6

However, the MIC is considering to allow portability of numbers between PHS and mobiles. It will then not be possible to tell the difference based on the number alone. Plans call for a specific initial ringtone to denote if the destination is PHS. This will be provided by Wilcom, the only PHS provider by November 2013.

MIC information page (J).

Using Wi-Fi in lieu of OTA on a Galapagos Android

2013-03-30T15:53:00.000+09:00

We all remember the mythical good ol' days, when no access points had passwords on them, contracts weren't required, and the entire city was covered with them so you never had to pay for your own internet access? Right? Right? How our memories are so convenient. If you're just arrived to Japan from overseas, you will notice that:

There is plenty of Wi-Fi in Japan, but not much of it is unencrypted (a good thing, actually), and even less is free access or registration-less.
Most of the Wi-Fi access points in Japan are not for laptops in the coffee shop. They're for smartphones to augment their access speeds and data capacity. They're also for giving data access to shops, bars, and restaurants whose patrons can't get a cellular signal easily (many bars and restaurants are underground and/or have very radio-wave resistant walls.

I often read from people visiting Japan, hoping to avoid paying for net access while they vacation, that they are disappointed about the lack of "free Wi-Fi" in Japan. However, I travel to New York City or San Francisco or other big internet savvy cities, the "public" or "free" Wi-Fi is often poorly maintained, slow, non-responsive, and unusable. Unfortunately, it's a bit of the "you get what you pay for" dilemma: the commercial Wi-Fi spots that are locked down tend to be fast and reliable because they have to maintain a service level for the paying customers.

How did Japan get this way? How does it work? Is it any good? To start, let's begin with an ...

data consumption: D > S

Intro: 3G/LTE Demand Exceeded Supply

If you haven't gotten the memo, smartphone technology has saturated the mobile airwaves. Despite Japan's advancements in 3G and LTE, what the provider manages to provide, the smartphones instantly use up.

Softbank, who entered the smartphone business early in Japan with the iPhone 3G, was often criticized for its supposably substandard bandwidth available for it's megabyte slurping Apple toy (Japanese net users have never had to deal with AT&T and the iPhone, so their standards are higher). People complained and complained how the minute Rival X offered the iPhone, they would switch over.

I know, as I was one of the first early adopters of the Japanese market iPhone. The bandwidth crush would be so bad at times that using streaming applications such as YouTube would be impossible (buffering for up to ten seconds for every few seconds played) during "rush hour" — before 10am and from 5pm until the late in the evening, because that was when everybody else was using there smartphone.

So I used Japan's regulated MNP (mobile number portability) service to switch to KDDI with an Android phone. Sure enough, KDDI was much, much faster. At least at first, when I was one of the few on the network. Now, KDDI, which was supposed to have a much more robust network than Softbank, has the same sort of traffic jams that people complained about on Softbank now that it has a rich CDMA lineup of iPhones and Androids. I then MNPed over to Docomo. First on 3G. Then with their new LTE network. Same situation. Fast at first when smartphone adoption was low, but now docomo also suffers from the similar bandwidth scarcity slowness as the other networks during rush hour commuter times.

light waves > radio waves wrt bandwidth

Wi-Fi Connected to Landlines to the Rescue

While counterintuitive ("radio waves don't take up any space, why not just allow more radio waves?") to the layman, the problem is that the airwaves are actually scarce and precious resource, and there are literally hundreds of millions of devices in Japan alone competing for it. And they're putting ever more pressure on the airwaves as the devices get bigger (bigger batteries, meaning they're on and used more often), and more complex (applications that use more and more data).

Wi-Fi is almost (but not always -- see below) connected to a broadband line. Broadband, while also under pressure, is not limited by airspace in that networks can expand capacity and speeds by simply adding more lines.

Thus, the mobile carriers in Japan decided that it would be best to encourage their smartphone users to use Wi-Fi for their data instead of 3G or LTE as much as possible. This way, it would be a win-win; pressure would be taken off the airwaves, and users would get much less latency (3G and even LTE, which is technically not 4G, have serious startup latency compared to connected Wi-Fi) and probably much higher speeds.

But "encourage" does not mean "give away": a lot of the providers weren't so gracious as to often the service for free to non-contract devices — especially to phones using competing carriers. But the Wi-Fi plans were added as a subsidized cheap add-on to a data plan, and they often merged their existing Wi-Fi services, and partnered & formed alliances with existing commercial public Wi-Fi providers (ex. FON and UQ for Softbank, FLETS SPOT for Docomo) to make their coverage as comprehensive as possible.

not all Wi-Fi portals give your browser cookies

Baking the Solution into the Device

One of the common criticisms of Wi-Fi by novices, especially now that using them with security by default is no longer considered wise, is that they're too hard to configure. Asking an average non-power user to not only set up the SSID and WPA passwords, but also authenticate every time they wanted to use a hotspot would guarantee minimal adoption.

Softbank first attempted to tackle this problem by using iOS's built in "Profile" feature in Apple's iPhone. Apple does not allow after-market third party additions to the iOS firmware, and they even scolded Softbank for allowing its salespeople to "helpfully" (meaning often without the customer asking) configure their iPhone by installing Softbank/Yahoo! Japan applications changing the default search engine. Customers had to go to Softbank's site on their phone and manually download and install the profile. Doing this would preprogram the Wi-Fi with all of Softbank's existing (including legacy) Wi-Fi SSIDs and WEP passwords. However, you still had to type your Softbank iPhone "i.softbank.jp" email address and password in the capture portal to connect to the outside world. As the original versions of iOS did not allow for much background internet activity, this was not that debilitating when you would be near a Softbank hotspot yet not logged in; no background applications would lose connectivity due to the switchover from OTA to (capture portaled with no outside access) Wi-Fi.

The reality is that hardly any Japanese iPhone users installed that special profile. Softbank and other carriers learned from this initial early adopter experience. If they were going to get the average smartphone user to use these "public" access points, the setup would have to be painless, and no extra installation of applications necessary.

Fortunately, open source Android allows carriers to do this.

a giant Galápagos turtle

Galapagos Japanese Android smartphones & Wi-Fi

Android software is commonly modified by the carriers and the hardware manufacturers with add-ons. In addition to Japanese fonts and input methods that are often better than what the stock builds offer, Japanese carriers have been including Wi-Fi connection daemons in their firmware that can aggressively and automatically switch to a supported Wi-Fi spot whenever one is in range.

These applications are built into the firmware (they're closed source), and they can be updated from the Play application market from the carriers exclusive channels (A docomo phone cannot see or download the au and SoftBank Wi-Fi applications, for example)

The setup options are designed to be as painless as possible. In KDDI/au's case, it will extract the "login id" (the "au id") from the phone automatically (which is the phone's phone number), so all the user needs to configure is the password (which can be as simple as a 4 digit numeric PIN).

How well do they perform? I've had a chance to play with three carriers solutions on a variety of phones over the years. While I need to caveat my information with the disclaimer that these apps are constantly being updated so my information may be a little out of date, I have used all three solutions within the last three months.

I'll rate them from worst to best.

Bronze: KDDI/au

KDDI/au's software has the fewest amount of access points (most of them are inside the KDDI/au shop stores), and the least reliable access software; even when inside a au shop, the software would often fail to "hold on" to a connection or would fail to negotiate with a KDDI/au access point. Of course, during this negotiation phase, your phone will be unusable for about ten to fifteen seconds, wasting your time.

The other problem with KDDI's software is that of the software solutions here (none are perfect), it is the least likely to "play nice" with the built-in Android Wi-Fi auto-connect logic. It is only through trial and error that I managed to get it to work well with the long list of password protected and non-protected list of SSIDs within my device.

One unique feature of KDDI right now is the availability of its access points on some city buses. As to whether this will provide an advantage over using your own phone radio remains to be seen.

KDDI's software is the easiest to configure of the three reviewed here. It's almost "install and go", if it's not already baked into the firmware.

I have not had a chance to test out how well the KDDI iPhone connects to their network — only Android Gingerbread based devices.

Silver: Softbank

Softbank has made a lot of deals with affiliates such as FON and other Wi-Fi providers, and its software connects to them all. Softbank was the first to innovate in the "supplement their mobile with Wi-Fi" area out of necessity: they were the first to carry the iPhone in Japan, and the Apple users soon overwhelmed their capacity, especially during commuter rush hours.

In addition to affiliates, they also have a lot of other legacy connection points due to their previous incarnations and deals with Vodaphone and J-Phone.

Softbank's weakness is that some of their affiliates (which their software knows about and will attempt to connect to any of them indiscriminately) are of questionable quality and speed — especially the user crowdsourced access points. You are often better off using your own mobile radio than the "Softbank" Wi-Fi access.

Fortunately, Softbank allows you to configure as to whether you want to connect to FON access points (the least reliable) separately from the Softbank access points.

Gold: Docomo

Docomo doesn't have as many access points or affiliates as Softbank. But when it chooses to partner with affiliates, it seems to choose partners that maintain a high service quality level. For example, docomo tends to work very will in the Tokyo Subway (not the Tokyo metro). It works well on the Narita Express as well.

Docomo's software also allows you to connect to overseas Wi-Fi as well, called "World Wing Wi-Fi". This is a separate, non-free service with separate credentials that I have not had a chance to evaluate. I do not know how good the coverage is or how well it works.

Docomo's drawback is that the software can be a bit hard to configure if you try to avoid carrier-lock in and don't use any carrier services. Initially, I found configuring the special ID and passwords can be trickier than the other services. Docomo goes overboard on security/configurability where it wants a separate user id and password for a lot of its services. Sometimes it difficult to remember which docomo username/password/pin corresponds to which service.

Docomo does has a nice mode in its software called "home mode" where you can tell it the SSID and credentials of your "home" Wi-Fi and it will treat this as special; it will allow you to toggle auto-connect (even when you do not auto connect to Docomo networks) to your home network and gives you a visual indicator with its on-home screen widget.

Weaknesses of all solutions and proposals for improvements

The logic in the auto-connect for KDDI/au and Softbank could be much improved. The problem with the aggressive auto-connect is that when you're walking down the sidewalk outside, you will inevitably walk by a few cafés and stores that have carrier-sponsored or carrier affiliated setups. The problem is the switchover: often times the switchover causes a disconnect/abort of whatever you happen to be downloading or streaming.

If you're browsing web pages, this is not a problem as the cycle for web pages is download burst and disconnect, a long period of net inactivity while you read, then a click on a link for another burst.

However, if you're watching a video or doing something that requires a connection, often the switchover from mobile to Wi-Fi causes whatever your doing to stop. Depending on the intelligence of the application, this may or may not require you to restart whatever you were doing manually; even worse, you may have to restart from the beginning.

And if you do restart with the new Wi-Fi connection, often you will only have that connection for about 10 seconds before you walk out of range and have to restart the connection resume process again.

The solution is to either sense that you're not simply "passing by" the Wi-Fi spot. Either a heuristic or manually configurable setting should allow you to tell the software to only connect if you're staying near the Wi-Fi spot for some time (for example, eating/drinking at the bar or restaurant with the Wi-Fi spot).
　
Softbank's network of Wi-Fi spots uses a lot of FON and user contributed devices ("crowdsourcing"). While this gives you access to a LOT of spots and availability, the quality of these "user maintained" access points is often questionable. The problem is some of these routers may be on but are often left unplugged into a landline broadband or mobile cellular device. Thus, the device connects yet it's a "road to nowhere" from net connectivity. These "bogus" spots are not deliberate. Some people physically disconnect their routers from the internet and forget to turn the router off. Others are simply neglected.

The solution here is much harder; the solution would be to do what Android devices do: Android devices ping Google occasionally to see if the connection it has made (when the Wi-Fi meter turns from black to gray) can get to the outside world, and then turn the meter from gray to blue or green when a connection to the outside world can be confirmed.

Unfortunately, this isn't something that user-level software can do without disrupting the existing mobile connection; standard Android builds don't yet allow for the use of the mobile broadband radio and the Wi-Fi radio at the same time.
　
A lot of bars and restaurants in Japan are located underground or in buildings that have difficulty getting a mobile cellular signal. These restaurants will provide, as a service to their patrons, a Wi-Fi router so their customers phones can use the internet via their Wi-Fi. What they'll do is put the Wi-Fi router near the stairwell or entranceway of the restaurant and connect this router to a mobile router, essentially "bridging" from where the mobile cell signal is reachable to the customers tables inside with Wi-Fi.

The mobile carriers encourage this solution, giving the restaurants stickers to place on their entranceway to place alongside their "Visa and Mastercard and JCB accepted" stickers; patrons seeing this know they can relax without having to sacrifice (data) connectivity indoors.

The problem with this solution is often the modern phones (LTE) the customers have are faster than the speeds the restaurant's mobile router provides (often just 3G). And even if the restaurant does have LTE or faster, multiple customers using the same access point mean the access point is often quickly saturated.

Furthermore, the "bridge" is often located in a sub-optimal spot (not near a place with a good signal) and doesn't have "full bars", meaning the connection may not be full speed — or worse, drop out occasionally.

The solution to this is to have the software judge the quality of the Wi-Fi provided and the speeds it provides. If your phone can get a better connection or faster speed with its own cellular radio, it should use that instead of the Wi-Fi spot. Unfortunately, this solution is similar to the previous solution, in that it's not something that user software alone can solve — a modification would be needed to the Android net stack to allow the Wi-Fi switching software to probe and test the connection while the cellular radio was still doing its thing for the user.

All of the solutions, depending on their software version, have difficulty "cooperating" with the built-in Android Wi-Fi auto-connect software. Sometimes the daemon fights with the onboard daemon as to which one should take priority regarding which site to connect or disconnect to. The is especially true with Jellybean Android, which, similar to iPhone, understands the concepts of "login capture portals" and provides special support for them in the status bar and browser.

As KDDI, Softbank, and docomo all make their own custom versions of Android, they should work on their version of Android to make sure that their solution is better integrated and their Wi-Fi auto-connect software works more in harmony with the built in Wi-Fi auto-connect software,

JCI applies for MVNO access to both KDDI and Softbank

2013-03-30T12:12:00.002+09:00

Japan Communications Inc. (JCI) announced (J) that they have applied for MVNO access to both KDDI and Softbank Mobile (SBM) networks.

The Japanese mobile landscape has change dramatically since March 2009 when JCI started offering b-mobile data products as an MVNO using NTT Docomo's (DCM) 3G FOMA network. Each mobile carrier now has a low-frequency spectrum allocation and offers LTE (currently 3.9G). This means that, technically, Softbank should suck a lot less than previously.

Accordingly, JCI is looking to expand into a domestic multicarrier MVNO. A combined SBM/DCM network would bring expanded Band 1 (2100 MHZ) FDD-LTE and 3G access with supplementing 800 and 900 MHz bands for better rural and underground penetration. Because many more overseas phones support 900 MHz than 800 MHz, this would be a good development for people who are not purchasing Japanese carrier-branded handsets, like most Nexus phones. This also moves closer in the direction of the original Nexus plan separating phone and carrier selection.

More on Japanese frequency bands.

Internationally, they could bridge the CDMA-2000 networks of KDDI and US Sprint, to which JCI already has access.

It will be interesting to see how this goes. Such developments are actually not AT ALL in the interest of the traditional carriers - the one's on top at least. JCI has had a bit of a rocky ride with DCM. To gain open access, they had to force MIC arbitration, and then later down the road, a billing disagreement arose. So it's only natural that JCI would look to expand it's options.

Cost per megabyte of Japanese MVNO data plans

2013-03-21T18:07:00.000+09:00

Building on the recent post compiling all the currently available MVNO data plans, here is a comparison of the "high speed" data plans in graphical form. These are all advertised at standard 3G and LTE speeds, though they all are "best effort," and all (except for the JCI b-mobile "fair" products) include traffic shaping by the MVNO.

Therefore, in practice, these will perform less well than a data plan directly from a mobile network operator (e.g., KDDI, Softbank, Docomo).

The colors indicate the degree of early termination fee (ETF), with blues indicating zero penalties, and Reds indicating potentially great expense. Some of these MVNOs will charge you the entire rest of the remaining contract balance if you cancel early! The hatching indicates the minimum usage (in months) required to be eligible for that particular monthly price.

Biglobe is providing the absolute best value, but they use 2-year, autorenewing contracts. Without a contract the JCI chameleon with the 5 GB Flat rate option is the next best deal.

The Panasonic "LTE Speed" plan is ridiculous. It provides 7 GB of data for ¥6,780 with an auto-renewing 1-year contract. That same amount of data direct from Docomo costs ¥5,985 with a 2-year contract.

Comparison of all Japanese MVNOs

2013-03-19T18:12:00.003+09:00

MAR Matsushita has compiled a comparison of just about every Mobile Virtual Network Operator data SIM that uses Docomo's 3G (FOMA) and LTE (Xi) networks. I recently added the English version, which is abbreviated below. The most up-to-date version will likely be this google docs spreadsheet.

The data are organized by price. For less than ¥1,000 per month, you'll get the low-speed, no streaming data SIMs that are good only for short messaging and light maps usage. Many of these have a coupon option that lets you add several hundred megabytes of usually unrestricted data (e.g., JCI's turbo charge).

Spending over ¥1,000 per month will get you about 1GB of data, though it will typically be relatively high-latency and will not perform as well as ¥6,000 Docomo data plan. Multiple gigabytes can be had for over &yen2,500.

See the end of the post for a description of the types of restrictions (i.e., A, B, C, etc.) and the column explanations.

Buying Considerations

Price per megabyte is not the only consideration. The least expensive plans (in terms of unit cost) have 2-year contract requirements often with strict early termination fees. Each of these MVNOs pays to Docomo a similar wholesale cost, and they all approach reselling that bandwidth differently. Some may more aggressively shape traffic than others. Newer MVNOs are perhaps more likely to be less aggressive at first while they are building a customer base. Absolutely none of these MVNOs guarantee speeds or disclose exactly how they limit bandwidth. Company A may have a reputation for providing consistently low latency and high speeds, but could change that at any time, with no warning.

Unit Price Differences

The average price for 100 MB is about ¥250. The absolute minimum is ¥56 from Biglobe for 7GB of LTE data, and the most is for the b-mobile FAIR chameleon SIM at ¥880. The difference in price between the extremes reflects two things:

Prepaid versus postpaid with a minimum contract requirement and
More importantly, the amount of traffic shaping done by the MVNO.

The JCI "Fair" products are straight pipes to Docomo with public, global IP address. Having extensive experience with these, I can attest to there being no performance difference between a Docomo plan and a Fair SIM.

Somewhere in the middle of this is probably where most of you would be most comfortable.

"Unlimited"

Some of these plans are advertised as unlimited. None are. The low-speed plans with less 400 kbps have effectively no data quota. Plans that have full 3G or LTE speeds that don't have a stated monthly quota have 3-day limits, exceeding of which will result in speed restrictions that are typically in the ~ 100 kbps range. Plans that are advertised as unlimited by have these quota are denoted by a (*).

Less than ¥1,000 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
b-mobile 3G/4G zero yen	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥0	¥0	LTE	25 m / 75 m	¥37.8	B	yes	0	¥370	stop	private	no
bmobile4G blackout (includes hardware)	JCI	postpaid	90 days	¥34,000	¥400	¥0	LTE	25 m / 75 m	—	B	no	500	¥80	stop	private	no ?
ServersMan 3G 100 (router rental option)	DTI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥490	¥0	3G	100 k / 100 k	—	unk	yes	unlimited	—	—	???	yes
ASAHI net LTE128K plan	Asahi Net	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥785	¥10,500	LTE	128 k / 128 k	—	—	yes	unlimited	—	—	???	???
0 MB course	BB.excite	postpaid	1 month	¥4,410	¥787	???	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	A	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	yes
High speed mobile / D service minimum start 128 plan	IIJmio	postpaid	1 months	¥3,150	¥945	¥0	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	A	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	yes
128 plan (Value)	Toppa!	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥970	¥970	3G	128 k / 128 k	—	B	no	unlimited	—	—	private	no
hi-ho LTE type D	hi-ho	postpaid	1 year	¥3,150	¥980	¥5,250	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥472.5	A	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile Aeon Plan XA	JCI	postpaid	1 year	¥3,150	¥980	¥10,500	LTE	150 k / 150 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile 980 (yodobashi / amazon)	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥980	¥0	LTE	150 k / 150 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile smart SIM 980	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥980	¥0	LTE	150 k / 150 k	¥525	C	no	unlimited	—	—	private	no
Rakuten Broadband LTE Entry Plan	Fusion	postpaid	1 month	¥4,200	¥980	¥0	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	???	yes	200	¥490	100 k	private	no

¥1,001 to ¥2,000 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
Asahi Net LTE 1 GB Plan	Asahi Net	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥1,950	¥10,500	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	L	yes	1,024	¥190	—	???	???
High speed mobile / D service lite start plan	IIJmio	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥1,974	¥0	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	H	yes	1,024	¥193	128 kbps	private	yes
BIGLOBE LTE/3G Lite S Plan	BIGLOBE	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥1,980	¥9,975	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	D	no (¥3,150)	1,024	¥193	128 kbps	???	no
b-mobile4G Amazon high speed flat rate	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥1,980	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M 3G	—	B	yes	500	¥396	stop	private	no
b-mobile Aeon 1980	JCI	postpaid	1 year	¥0	¥1,980	¥10,500	LTE	25 M / 75 M	¥525	B or C?	yes	1,024	¥193	150 kbps	private	no
b-mobile Smart SIM 1980	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥1,980	¥0	LTE	25 M / 75 M	¥525	B	yes	1,024	¥193	150 kbps	private	no

¥2,001 to ¥2,500 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
b-mobile3G/4G Fair	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥1,450	¥2,087	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	B	yes	250	¥835	stop	private	no
b-mobile4G chameleon Fair	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥3,600	¥2,200	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	C	yes	250	¥880	stop	private	no
sumaho 980 Plan S	JCI	postpaid	3 months	¥3,150	¥2,270	¥5,250	3G	150 k / 150 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
LTE Entry	Panasonic	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥2,340	up to ¥13,440	LTE	5.7 M / 14 M	—	???	yes (¥3,275	3,072	¥76	512 kbps	???	no？
500 MB course	BB.excite	postpaid	1 month	¥4,410	¥2,415	???	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	A	yes	500	¥483	128 kbps	private	yes
b-mobile 3G/4G U300 6-month	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥2,416	N/A	LTE	300 k / 300 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	public	no
b-mobile 4G 6-month flat rate	JCI	prepaid	6 months	¥0	¥2,460	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	B	yes	1,024	¥240	150 kbps	private	no
b-mobile4G chameleon 1-Month U300	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥3,320	¥2,480	N/A	LTE	300 k / 300 kbps	—	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile 3G/4G U300 1-month	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥2,980	N/A	LTE	300 k / 300 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no

¥2,501 to ¥3,000 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
Tiki Mobile 300k 2-year Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	2 years	¥0	¥2,580	up to ¥16,000	3G	300 k / 300 k	—	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	???	no
OCN Mobile Entry d	OCN	postpaid	2 years	¥2,625	¥2,670	¥9,975	3G	5.7 M / 7.2 M	—	E	yes	1,830 *	¥146	—	???	no
24-month course	Mobile Renaissance	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥2,680	N/A	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	—	???	no	unlimited	—	—	???	no
Asahi Net LTE 2 GB Plan	Asahi Net	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥2,790	¥10,500	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	M	yes	2,048	¥136	—	???	???
1 GB course	BB.excite	postpaid	1 month	¥4,410	¥2,835	???	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	A	yes	1,024	¥277	128 kbps	private	yes
OCN Mobile Entry d LTE	OCN	postpaid	2 years	¥2,625	¥2,880	¥9,975	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	E	yes	2,048	¥141	100 kbps	???	no
High Speed Mobile / D Service Family Share 1 GB Plan	IIJmio	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥2,940	¥0	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥525	A	yes	1,024	¥287	128 kbps	private	yes
b-mobile 4G PairGB	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥2,970	¥0	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	B	yes	2,048	¥145	stop	private	no ？
BIGLOBE LTE/3G Lite M Plan	BIGLOBE	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥2,980	¥9,975	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	D	yes (¥3,150)	2,048	¥146	128 kbps	???	no
Mobile 3G + Mobile Course	So-net	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥2,980	¥9,975	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	—	E	no (?)	1,830 *	¥163	???	???	no
Tiki Mobile 300k 6-month Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	6 months	¥3,570	¥2,980	¥8,000	3G	300 k / 300 k	—	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	???	no
Tiki Mobile 7.2 2-year Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	2 years	¥0	¥2,980	up to ¥16,000	3G	5.7 M / 7.2 M	—	E	yes	1,830 *	¥163	???	???	no
b-mobile Aeon Plan B	JCI	postpaid	1 year	¥3,150	¥2,980	¥10,500	LTE	400 k / 400 k	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile Smart 2980	JCI	postpaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥2,980	¥0	LTE	25 M / 75 M	¥525	B	yes	2,048	¥146	150 kbps	private	no
12-month course	Mobile Renaissance	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥2,980	N/A	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	—	???	no	unlimited	—	—	???	no
Rakuten Broadband LTE Active Plan	Fusion	postpaid	1 month	¥4,200	¥2,980	¥0	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	???	yes	1,920 *	—	100 kbps	private	no ?

¥3,001 to ¥3,500 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
plala mobile + "pura-komi" 0	plala	postpaid	2 years	¥3,990	¥3,055	¥15,750	3G	??? / 1.5 M	—	???	no (?)	unlimited	—	—	???	no
b-mobile 3G/4G 1 GB Flat Rate	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥380	¥3,100	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	B	yes	1,024	¥303	stop	private	no
sumaho Plan S + monthly 1980	JCI	postpaid	3 months	¥3,150	¥3,270	¥5,250	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	¥525	C	yes	1,024	¥193	150 kbps	private	no
Tiki Mobile 7.2 6-month Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	6 months	¥3,570	¥3,380	¥8,000	3G	5.7 M / 7.2 M	—	E	yes	1,830 *	¥185	???	???	no
6-month course	Mobile Renaissance	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥3,480	N/A	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	—	???	no	unlimited	—	—	???	no

¥3,501 to ¥4,000 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
Hyrbrid Mobile Plan (router rental)	DTI	postpaid	2 years	¥0	¥3,295	up to ¥26,565	3G	5.7 M / 7.2 M	—	???	no (?)	unlimited	—	—	???	no
hi-ho LTE type D 1 GB	hi-ho	postpaid	1 year	¥3,150	¥3,580	¥5,250	LTE	128 k / 128 k	¥472.5	A	yes	1,024	¥350	128 kbps	private	no
Asahi Net LTE 3 GB Plan	Asahi Net	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥3,790	¥10,500	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	N	yes	3,072	¥123	—	???	???
Tiki Mobile LTE A 2-year Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	2 years	¥3,570	¥3,880	up to ¥20,000	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	F	yes	2440 *	¥159	???	???	no ?
@nifty do LTE 2-year Flat Rate Plan	@nifty	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥3,938	up to ¥33,495	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	K	no (?)	5,120	¥77	300 kbps	???	???
talkingSIM U300	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥3,150	¥3,960	N/A	3G	300 k / 300 k	—	C	no	unlimited	—	—	public	no
3-month course	Mobile Renaissance	prepaid	1 month	¥0	¥3,980	N/A	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	—	???	no	unlimited	—	—	???	no
Wireless Gate Wifi+LTE 2-year plan	Wireless Gate	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥3,980	up to ¥38,000	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	J	no	3,072	¥130	128 kbps	???	???
LTE Lite	Panasonic	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥3,980	up to ¥15,080	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	???	yes (¥3,275	3,072	¥130	128 kbps	???	no ？
BIGLOBE LTE/3G Daytime Plan	BIGLOBE	postpaid	3 mo	¥3,150	¥3,980	¥9,975	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	I	yes (¥3,150)	7,168	¥56	128 kbps	???	no
1-year plan	Inter Communications	postpaid	1 year	¥4,725	¥3,990	up to ¥46,880	3G	??? / 7.2 M	—	B	no (?)	3,660 *	¥109	???	???	no

Greater than ¥4,001 per month

Product	Company	Billing	Min time	Contract fee	Min monthly cost	ETF	Net type	Speed (up / down)	Coupon	Rest.	Micro SIM	Monthly MB	Price / 100MB	Exceed limit	IPv4	IPv6
sumaho plan S + data 2980	JCI	postpaid	3 months	¥3,150	¥4,270	¥5,250	3G	5.7 M / 14 M	¥525	C	yes	7,168	¥146	150 kbps	private	no
Tiki Mobile LTE A 6-month Plan	TikiTiki	postpaid	6 months	¥3,570	¥4,280	¥10,000	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	F	yes	2440 *	¥175	???	???	no ?
3-month plan	Inter Communications	postpaid	3 months	¥4,725	¥4,725	up to ¥14,175	3G	??? / 7.2 M	—	B	no (?)	3,660 *	¥129	—	???	no
BIGLOBE LTE/3G Standard Plan	BIGLOBE	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥4,980	¥9,975	LTE	37.5 M / 100 M	—	G	yes (¥3,150)	7,168	¥69	128 kbps	???	no
b-mobile Aeon Plan XC	JCI	postpaid	1 year	¥3,150	¥4,980	¥10,500	LTE	carrier speed	¥525	C	yes	unlimited	—	—	private	no
b-mobile4G Chameleon Flat 1-month	JCI	prepaid	1 month	¥400	¥5,400	N/A	LTE	25 M / 75 M	—	C	yes	5,120	¥105	stop	private	no
LTE Speed	Panasonic	postpaid	2 years	¥3,150	¥6,780	up to ¥17,880	3G	25 M / 75 M	—	C	yes	2,048	¥95	128 kbps	???	no

* These plans are advertised as "unlimited" but each has a 3-day limit. The data amounts in the table were obtained by multiplying each 3-day limit by 10 to obtain the potential monthly maximum.

Data Restrictions

(3 million packets = 366 MegaBytes, but beware that some of these companies report as using 1000 bytes per KB, instead of 1024...)

A: 3 million packets/3day; no restrictions (with coupon)
B: 3 million packets / 3 days
C: 3 million packets / 3 days or 10 million / month
D: 360 MB / 3 days
E: 1.5 million packets / 3 days
F: 2 million packets / 3 days
G: 1 GB / 72 hours
H: 1.2 million packet / 3 days; no restrictions (with coupon)
I: 360 MB / 3 days: usage restriced to 2:00am-8:00pm
J: 200 MB/3 days: 2 day 300 kbps; 3 GB / month: 128 kbps
K: 5 GB / month: 300 kbps
L: 100 MB / 72 hours: 100 kbps until the next day
M: 200 MB / 72 hours: 100 kbps until next day
N: 300 MB / 72 hours: 100 kbps until next day

Column Explanations

Company: MVNO
Billing: prepaid or postpaid
Min time: minimum contract or prepaid interval
Contract fee: initial one-time payment at start of contract
Min monthly cost: minimum monthly cost of product including any ISP fees that may be tacked on
ETF: Early termination fee
Net type: Network type (LTE or 3G)
Speed: uplink and downlink speeds in Megabits or kilobits per second
Coupon: if "turbo charge-like coupons are available
Rest.: data restrictions
Micro Sim: whether one is available. If a price is listed, this indicates that a normal size SIM must first be purchased, then replaced, such that you pay for two SIMs.
Monthly MB: Amount of data in MegaBytes for the non-unlimited plans.
Price/100MB: Price, after subtracting any voice service fees for 100 MB of data in the non-unlimited plans.
Exceed limit: restrictions that are placed if the limits are exceed.
IPv4: indicates if IP address is public or private
IPv6: indicates if IPv6 is available.

Improved data plans for b-mobile "smartphone SIMs"

2013-03-17T09:49:00.001+09:00

The "sumaho" voice SIMs now have an additional option for data: a 1 GB plan for ¥1,980. Also, the 200 kbps data plan was replaced with a less expensive 150 kbps data plan. There will be essentially no difference in the old and new low-speed option from a user perspective. Both will be similarly slow and suited only for short messages and light maps usage.

These are FOMA 3G SIMs. They are not compatible with Docomo Xi handsets. A Nano SIM is also available, but only direct from JCI. Amazon and Yodobashi don't carry nano SIMs. Billing is postpaid, monthly recurring.

スマホ電話SIM		Voice Plan S	Voice Plan M	Voice Plan L
スマホ電話SIM		¥1,290	¥2,290	¥3,710
150 kbps	¥980	¥2,270	¥3,270	¥4,690
1GB Flat Rate Data Plan	¥1,980	¥3,270	¥4,270	¥5,690
2GB Flat Rate Data Plan	¥2,980	¥4,270	¥5,270	¥6,690

B-Mobile Smart SIMs

2013-03-17T09:25:00.000+09:00

This line up of data-only LTE SIM cards is available from Amazon, Yodobashi, and direct from JCI. Each supports Turbo Charge. Billing is monthly recurrent via credit card (post paid). There are three products:

¥980: 150 kbps, unlimited (no streaming)
¥1,980: LTE/3G speed, 1GB
¥2,980: LTE.3G speed, 2GB

The upfront cost is ¥3,150 for the JCI version, but may vary slightly for the Amazon and Yodobashi versions. The is the cost for the unactivated SIM card "package". After exceeding the gigabyte limit, speed is reduced to 150 kbps for the remainder of the billing cycle.

B-mobile Turbo Charge for low-speed data plan

2013-03-17T09:21:00.001+09:00

Turbo Charge is an add-on for low-speed data plans that provides short bursts of unrestricted data usage, similar to the "fair" line of SIM cards.

JCI offers under the b-mobile brand a number of low-speed data SIMs. The advertised speed of these SIM cards range from 150 to 400 kbps, and there are no monthly limits on data usage. While these SIMs are very inexpensive and great for what they are advertised (short communications and light maps usage), traffic is heavily shaped, often resulting in high latency that adversely affects usability.

Turbo Charge can be toggled on and off by an android app (requires a mobile data connection to make the switch - you cannot toggle it via wifi). Turbo charges are pre-purchased and valid for 180 days. B-mobile subtracts data by the byte.

¥525: 100MB valid over 180 days (¥5.25/MB)
¥1,800: 500MB valid over 180 days (¥3.6/MB)

Turbo Charge supports the U300 series, the Aeon series, and the "smartphone" voice SIM and smart data-only SIMs. Basically all the low-speed SIMs.

Users of this report very favorably. For someone who typically doesn't need a lot out of a mobile data connection, the least expensive voice plan in the Aeon or smartphone voice SIM, with the 150 kbps data plan, coupled with a few turbo boost purchases each year, would provide by far the most economical option for a smarphone plan.

Unlocked Nexus 7 3G tablet coming to Japan

2013-02-07T16:22:00.000+09:00

This will be just perfect with a prepaid data SIM. The 32 GB Nexus 7 3G version will be on sale in Japan from 2/9 at major electronic stores for ¥29,800. That is by far the best deal in Japan for a 3G tablet. It uses a micro SIM card.

List of b-mobile SIMs here.

This would also be perfect for Ingress.

A month with UQ WiMAX

2013-02-04T10:20:00.002+09:00

My wife recently ordered an iPad Mini, just to see what the fuss about tablets is all about. As it's a toy she sensibly doesn't want to be locked in on a multi-year 3G contract, especially not with Softbank. So she got the wifi-only version, and we got a WiMAX router and subscription from Bic Camera instead. That way we can both use it, with her tablet as well as with my N7 and laptop.

The contract terms from Bic Camera are pretty good:

3880 yen a month ("BIC Fixed Year Passport")
3150 yen application fee
Unlimited data, a WiMAX wifi router and a 10k yen discount on a tablet or similar device
Automatic yearly renewal
Free cancellation during 30 days before the renewal date
9975 yen cancellation fee otherwise

The application fee and cancellation fee doesn't even quite cover the retail cost of the router, so it's a fairly reasonable price even before you add in the 10k device discount. if you want two routers (see further below) it actually pays to apply for one router, cancel the account, then reapply with two routers.

There's other plans available, including a daily and a monthly plan and a "hybrid" plan with AU's 3G network that gives you expanded coverage.

A few more details:

Service is "best effort", with no numerical speed guarantees
Outbound port 25 is blocked to avoid spammers. If you need SMTP mail routing (a normal user does not) they recommend using port 587 instead.
If you try to push enough data through at once that it impedes the use of the network for others, they will drop your effective data rate to avoid trouble.

WiMAX is sort of long-range, high-speed Wifi, and is intended mostly as a way to connect homes and offices to the net at high speed without having to pull cable under streets and through buildings. The speed is higher than the mobile phone data networks and you get unlimited data, but coverage is not nearly as good. The (slow, badly coded) coverage map shows that coverage is good around major cities and university campuses, patchy along the high-speed rail networks and in smaller towns, and thin to non-existent elsewhere. This covers most people and businesses, and they offer a free trial period so you can test the coverage yourself.

The URoad-SS10. Small and light enough to go in any pocket or anywhere together with your phone.

The router we got — URoad SS-10 — is small and trivially easy to use. It's the size of a small, thin deck of cards and acts as a wifi hotspot. You switch it on, pick the router on your phone, tablet or PC, and enter the key printed on the back of the router. They claim 9 hours on one charge, and I get over ten hours with the Nexus 7 and light to moderate use. The standard Mini-USB connector makes it trivial to top it up at work or power it from your laptop should you need to. It takes about a minute to a working connection when you power it up, but there's a sleep button that will wake it up much faster. Out of the box it is just a little flaky; on occasion you need to restart it when it gets confused about whether it's connected or not.

The coverage seems fine in practice. Reception at home is good, and surprisingly it's better in the middle of the apartment than near the windows. I get 14mbit/s down and 7mbit/s up; a decent speed, and much better than when I tether to my phone. I got the same speed to our old wireless router connected to a fast wired network, so I suspect the wifi could be the bottleneck here, not the WiMAX network.

When we got this, the ping latency was around 150-250ms. I updated the firmware just a couple of days ago¹, and the ping times have dropped to the 70-80ms range. It's much too early to tell if the flakiness above is gone, but I haven't had that problem yet.

Coverage is good out on the street, in most buildings and on above-ground trains. Even with a marginal connection the transmission speed is still about 4-5Mbit/s down and 1-2mbit/s up, more than good enough for normal use. The router does get quite warm when the signal deteriorates or disappears, but it's never uncomfortably hot and I appreciate the hand-warmer effect in winter. There's no signal in the subway and none at my desk at work — but I don't get a phone data connection either so it's not WiMAX specific. On the Shinkansen it tends to briefly lose connection now and again, especially between Kyoto and Nagoya. Overall I haven't found any coverage issues where I move about.

We got the WiMAX router for my wife's new iPad. But the tablet was on back-order, so I used the router with my Nexus 7 and my computer until it arrived. The experience has been very positive. So positive, in fact, that I decided I really want this for myself too, even though I can already tether to my phone with wifi. UQ offers a pair-type contract where you can have two routers for just another 200 yen per month, or 4100 yen per month in total. The one drawback is that you can't use both routers at the same time. If one of us is already connected, the other one can't connect. But we figure that collisions should be unusual, and it has yet to happen in practice.

So, who could make use of this? Here's a few situations where this can come in very handy:

You live in a short-term kind of situation. Perhaps you're here in Japan for just a year or so, or you're temporary working somewhere away from your regular home. Perhaps you're doing weekly commutes between two places. This will give you unlimited internet for both computer and phone without the hassle of a contract for a wired connection to a temporary place.
You don't have a smartphone or a data plan, but you want a tablet. For many people, having both a smarthpone and a tablet would be redundant (and truly, I mostly rely on my N7 these days). With a router like this you can connect any tablet to the net without having to buy a locked version or get stuck in a multi-year contract with a mobile carrier.
You have multiple devices and want to use them all, everywhere, all the time². A separate data plan for each device would become incredibly expensive. Tethering to your phone is a solution — and the one I've used up until now — but it tends to cost extra, usually has data limits, is only available with a few phones and will drain your phone battery. A single WiMAX router lets you connect any devices you want. You could even cancel your phone data plan altogether, though it is pretty handy as a back-up for when WiMAX coverage is lacking.
You want to use a computer on the road. The phone networks such as LTE are OK for phones and tablets, but the data-limits are completely inadequate for regular computer use. My monthly 7Gb phone allotment covers my phone and tablet use quite nicely, but I'd exhaust that in a week or less with my laptop — or in a day or two if I tried to work over the connection.
You play Ingress, watch Youtube or do anything else that needs a good, steady data connection while out and about.

Would I recommend this? Yes, I would. Do I use it myself? Yes, I do, and happily. In fact, my smartphone recently met with an accident involving a set of concrete stairs, and I've come to realize I now rely almost exclusively on the Nexus 7 and WiMAX for apps and internet nowadays. I may even go back to a "feature phone" to save on my monthly bill.

#1 Updating the firmware is commendably easy on this device: connect through the router wifi, go to the internal web server with your browser — it explicitly supports all modern browsers and has a separate page for mobile browsers — click the "system" tab, then click "update firmware".

I'm a bit conflicted about this kind of thing in general. We shouldn't have to do something like this to fix problems with our devices. Indeed, most consumers would never even know to look for this kind of solution, much less have the confidence to actually go through with it.

I increasingly believe this should fall on the shoulders of the actual seller of the device, whether it be a router, a digital camera or whatever: They, or the maker, should briefly inform the customer that there may be updates in the future that fixes problems, and offer to collect an email address used only to tell them when an update is available. The email would link to instructions, but also offer the customer to bring their thing to the store and have a clerk update it for them. It wouldn't have to be a burden; offering this as part of the in-store service could be a nice differentiator for physical shops against their online competitors.

#2 Guilty as charged.

Redesign our logo, get an INGRESS invite

2013-01-01T12:56:00.001+09:00

Are you looking for an invite for Ingress? Got creative skills? Well, we're looking for a new logo and we've got a couple of Ingress invites to give away.

We'd like to improve the look of Japan Mobile Tech, so we're soliciting submissions for a new logo. Or a new header image. Or both. Maybe even some backgrounds for sidebars divs.

Whatever you like.

We're really just looking for a means to give away these invites and think the old "retweet / share / like" contests are dumb.

Rules

If we use your submission, we'll give you an invite.
Even if we don't use your submission, we may still give you an invite (if we have enough).
Submissions must be 1) original work or 2) derivates of work with appropriate licensing.
Our selection criteria is entirely subjective and not at all based on the overall artistic merit of any particular submission.
Selection for use by JMT grants us license to use and create derivates of the work.
We retain no license of work that we do not select to use. We will not use it later for some other purpose.
This is provided with no warranty or guarantees at all.
If you receive an invite you are free to play as enlightenment or resistance, but note that all contributors to JMT are resistance, and all (except some guy named Sven) of those in our G+ communities are also resistance.

Choose wisely.

Send submissions to ingress-invite at japan mobile tech .com

Design Criteria

For the most part, we have no idea what we want, and have never felt like putting in the effort to figure it out, so that's the reason that this site looks the way it does.

Do as much or as little as you like. Limit it to a new logo, or add in header artwork or sidebar backgrounds if you like. Submitting more does not necessarily increase your chances of being given an invite, though we expect to have more than one invite to give away, so we hope to be able to reward those who submit good work, even if we don't use it.
Overused images/artwork of Mt. Fuji, samurai, the Japanese flag, etc., are unlikely to be selected, unless they're just really darn good.
JMT is now most focused on carriers, mobile technology (not limited to Android, though that is a primary focus, we also consider other platforms), and communications technology in Japan.
We are NOT looking for ingress themed artwork.
Our sidebar is currently 310 pixels, and the main div is fluid with a maximum width of 1600 pixels (to make viewing this post easier).
We prefer fluid main divisions.
Having the layered PSD (or whatever) files will allow us to best adapt the artwork to any future layout changes.

On the subject of ingress and website design, see here for Ingress artwork usage guidelines:

NTT Docomo to release a Tizen Samsung phone this year

2013-01-01T12:09:00.001+09:00

It has been recently reported that NTT Docomo is developing a new mobile operating system to compete with Apple and Google. Plans are for shipping a Samsung device loaded with this "new" OS, known as Tizen, sometime during 2013. Many seem to be left with the impression that NTT Docomo is developing, from the ground up, a brand new OS.

This is FAR from the truth. We'll get to that later. First, let’s look at some of what is being reported. The Yomiuri states [E]:

However, it is difficult for mobile phone service companies to offer their own services, such as for Docomo's online shopping, or to improve the safety of personal information for the smartphones equipped with the OS products developed in the United States.

To put it bluntly, what a total load of crap. Docomo's ability to secure (or not) the personal information of subscribers has nothing to do with whether the OS was developed in the United States. Yes, with the inevitably smally number of Tizen apps that will be initially available, Docomo will be easily able to screen each and every one for malware and addressbook harvesting behavior, but this model would not scale if Tizen gained the popularity of Android, and I don’t at all believe that Docomo would do a better job than Google of protecting personal information.

Docomo's ability to offer their own services also remains unaffected by the their adoption of Google’s OS. Yes, Android did disrupt carriers’ ability to charge for services that should have always been free, such as copying music and other media to their phone. Google offers for free stuff that Docomo did, and would like to again, sell.

In contrast, the basic technology information used by Tizen will be made open to the public and the OS is being developed on the premise that mobile phone service companies will be able to offer their own services.

This is also a load of crap*. Tizen will be released under the same Apache, GPL and similar licenses, such as Flora (Not sure how this differs from Apache) as Android. The structure of the Apache license is why Android has been successful. It allows makers to make modifications to the OS, adding for example a proprietary UI (like HTC Sense) without being required to release all the modified source code. If Google had released Android under the GPL, the major handset makers would have been much less likely to embrace it.

*if comparing to the iPhone, then yes, but the same article claims that iOS only has 14% of the smartphone OS market share.

What is Tizen?

https://github.com/kumadasu/tizen-history/blob/master/tizen-history.pdf

As the above graphic shows, mobile Linux development predates both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. There have been a number of attempts at developing a viable linux-based mobile OS, and some showed real promise, though none were successful. Essentially, these efforts led to Tizen.

NTT Docomo is by no means the main force behind Tizen, which is partially (but not entirely) a rebranding of the LiMo (Linux Mobile) Platform. (NTT Docomo released several LiMo handsets.) The founding partners of LiMo were NEC, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone. Now as Tizen, the Board of Directors is comprised of 12 companies, with Huawei, Intel, Orange, SK telecom, Sprint, and Telefonica joining the original LiMo members.

Note two US companies there: Intel and ~~Sprint~~ Softbank Mobile. The former brings extensive experience in mobile linux development to Tizen. The inclusion of the latter could be interesting.

Intel previously developed The Mobin OS, which was merged with Nokia’s Maemo OS to create the ill fated (but crtically well received) MeeGo OS that was featured in the Nokia N9. In September-October 2011, Intel left for LiMo, and the Linux Foundation cancelled support for MeeGo. Nokia has since abandoned Linux development, opting for Windows, and MeeGo was shelved (until recently when a Finnish startup staffed by several ex-Nokia folks rebranded it as “Sailfish”).

Following this, exactly one year ago today, LiMo was renamed Tizen with the merger of a number of unsuccessful linux-based mobile operating systems. As stated above, considering what Intel brings to the project, this is more than just a simple rebranding. However Tizen is still a long shot as far as mobile phones and tablets are concerned.

Potential goals of NTT Docomo

NTT Docomo could see some limited success, at first, by marketing to the demographic who still cling dearly to their Galapagos feature phones. Converting existing Android users, much less iPhone users, is simply never going to happen. Arguably, Windows Phone has better odds, and it’s odds are slim.

While we were mildly impressed by some of Docomo's recent apps, most of their attempts at differentiation have been terrible (Pallet UI). Even if the Tizen OS turns out to be excellent, without attracting app developers, it will ultimately fail.

Here is some of what NTT Docomo is probably thinking.

Recover revenue lost after giving up the walled garden model (that is exasperated by fierce competition in data/voice fees from smaller domestic carriers).
Enjoy total control of the content available to it's customers and get the 30% transaction fee that Google gets for sales of apps on the Play Store.
Differentiate its offerings from other domestic carriers.
License it's own OS to handset makers.
Be as successful as Android.

INGRESS tourism in Tokyo

2012-12-26T06:20:00.000+09:00

UPDATED with mobile 3G data options for visitors.

Photo by J. Maurice.

December would appear to have been an unusually slow month at Japan Mobile Tech if you were only counting the number of blog posts (three including this one). The reason for the low post activity is preoccupation with something else:

Ingress

Every contributor to JMT is participating in the closed beta of Google's surprisingly addictive GPS maps-based, augmented reality game. (Sorry, we don't have any invites.) One contributor actually left another contributor waiting for over an hour at a local craft beer establishment (!) because he was fighting to retake several portals from The Enlightenment (green). (May we suggest The Resistance as the path best chosen by newcomers?)

If you are unfamiliar with the game play and back story, it doesn't really matter. It's very simple: control predetermined points and take territory by linking three into triangles uninterrupted by enemy links. In Tokyo, most of the Googlers are playing on the side of The Enlightenment, which gave them a headstart and a stronghold in the Roppongi, Shibuya, i.e., the Yamanote area. The Resistance are relegated to shitamachi, which is actually quite appropriate because it gave The Enlightenment time to obtain higher levels and more territory — resistance should be defined by lower numbers occupying less desirable areas.

Two remaining resonators were best destroyed from inside a station

A side benefit (really the entire purpose of the game) is improved navigational data (and likely more) for Google Maps. If you can't agree to sharing anonymized location data with Google, then this game isn't for you. I actually see this as not just a good thing, but a brilliant thing. Google's walking directions in Japan, which are still in beta form, need a lot of work. They've gotten better since introduction but will still often direct you across multiple lanes of traffic in locations where no proper crossings exist.

Just ask Apple. You can't build a mapping service from scratch with crowdsourced data.

But you can powerfully augment a robust database with the fundamental background layers already in place. Rather than providing a path to walk, provide two points and analyze the route.

Lose the guidebook for a day

If you've got a day in Tokyo, why not leave the guidebook at the hotel and explore lesser known areas on foot? Many of the "portals" are shrines, monuments, or temples, and often the most interesting of those are not necessarily the largest and most famous.

For getting around, each of the Subway companies (unfortunately there are two independent ones) offer 1-day passes, often for less than the cost of opening a taxi door. Each network is well built out and can get you within a few kilometers of any portal in the 23 wards of Tokyo. Add a few hundred yen for the occasional JR or private rail ticket and you can get just about anywhere.

The best value are the Toei tickets for the services operated by the metropolitan government. All Toei subways (Asakusa, Oedo, Mita, Shinjuku) can be ridden all day for ¥500. However, this is only available during weekends and public holidays during certain times of the year. The standard pass is ¥700 and available all year. This adds the extensive bus system, the rustic Arakawa Line tram, and the Toneri Liner, which departs from Nippori (which is in need of a stronger Resistance presence).

More on Toei passes here: http://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/eng/tickets/index.html
Metro information here: http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/index.html

Currently available 1-day Tokyo transit passes

Pass	Price	Details
Toei subway weekend/holiday 1-day pass	¥500	Unlimited usage of Toei subway lines (restricted availabilty)
Toei 1-day pass	¥700	Unlimited usage of all Toei services (subway, bus, tram, etc.)
Tokyo Metro subway 1-day pass	¥710	Unlimited usage of Metro subway lines
Toei/Metro subway 1-day pass	¥1,000	Unlimited usage of Toei and Metro subway lines
Tokyo free pass	¥1,580	Unlimited usage of all Toei services, Metro, and JR lines (23 Wards)

Mobile data options

Japan Communications Inc (JCI) sells a variety of prepaid data-only SIM cards, primarily under the "b-mobile" branding. For around ¥3,000 (perhaps a bit more), you can have mobile data access for portal hacking. Make sure your phone is 1) unlocked and 2) supports UMTS Band 1 (2100 MHz), as explained here. These SIMs can cause high battery usage in some phones, but there is a patch for most rooted phones.

See our comparison of b-mobile SIMs. The easiest by far (but at a relative premium price) are the Visitor SIMs, which can be delivered to a hotel or picked up at major airports.

The "U300" and other reduced speed products might not be the best choice as they have high latency, and Ingress needs to have actions synched between the servers and all clients simultaneously. The 1GB options, which have much fewer speed restrictions, will be more suitable.

The absolute best value is the "1GB Flat Rate" SIM purchased from a major electronics retailer, but this requires activation from a Japanese mobile phone and has no English support other than "pressing 2 for English" during the activation process.

Subway Tunnel Coverage

2012-12-15T00:13:00.001+09:00

The Tokyo Metro has been boasting in its carriages that mobile coverage within the underground tunnels is being improved.

Those used to the subway in New York City or Washington D.C. are often impressed with the ability to get a signal in the stations.

Those from South Korea are spoiled: not only do they have cell coverage in the tunnels but many of the subway cars in Seoul have Wi-Fi.

The three men representing the signal bars are doing three different things with their phones in the tunnel: work, love, and play. I do two of those three things.

The small print warns that the cell usage in the trains should be data only, not done near the priority seats, and may be spotty in some areas.

Indeed, when I tried it out on the Chiyoda line, the reception was much better than usual, but I was unable to maintain a streaming video without interruptions in the dead middle of the tunnel.

Softbank pushes advertisements to iPhone 5s over emergency warning system

2012-12-11T16:10:00.003+09:00

EMERGENCY! The direction of your marriage depends on you,
the newly wed experience in a game. (Via twitter.)

Anyone who was around during and after 3/11/2011 would be familiar with these alerts. Upon arrival, any silent/manner mode settings are overridden and all phones in the vicinity start simultaneously squawking this annoying, swept-frequency alert that has come to be associated with an impending earthquake that may or may not be the "big one".

There has been an issue with Softbank iPhone 5s receiving advertisements for marriage role playing games, news of an ANA commuter flight overrunning a runway, and an announcement that pitcher Shuhei Ohtani signed with the Nippon Ham Fighters.

Well. I guess some of that might be important.

It's not yet clear exactly what is going on behind this. According to what I can gather from the wrong side of a paywall, Softbank is apparently saying that they are not sending these messages. It is my understanding that the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) pushes these, and they are then relayed through the carriers and broadcasters. It has to be a problem on Softbank's side.

The No! Softbank blog has been collecting these.

EMERGENCY! Asahi Shimbun extra edition:
Ishinomaki East high school pitcher Shuhei Ohtani to sign with Nippon Ham! (via twitter.)

Emergency! Asahi Shimbun extra edition:
ANA flight overruns runway at Shonai Airport. Stops in grass. No injuries.

Updating the Fujitsu Arrows Tab to ICS

2012-11-24T10:52:00.000+09:00

I've now updated both the NTT Docomo LTE version (F-01D) and the Wifi-only version (FAR7). As far as I can tell, there is nothing but goodness that comes with this. Mobile Chrome has grown far beyond the default Android browser but requires version 4 (ICS) or higher. Google Maps was previously very unstable, often force quitting. In the short time after updating, I've tried but been unable to crash it (yet). Zooming, rotating, displaying multiple layers all work much better than before.

Best of all, the ability to disable system apps has not been removed by either Fujitsu or Docomo! Finally, I don't have to stare out a bunch of useless installers for crap I'd never use!

There are two methods for updating:

Either download the update package via a PC and copy to the internal or SD card storage

Do it all over wifi from the tablet.

Since I was updating two of these, I did both. For the Docomo F-01D, I first downloaded the update package. For the Wifi-only FAR7, I did it all from the tablet. Each of these require downloading a an updater app (apk).

F-01D

Confirm that you have at least 1.5 GB free on either the internal memory or SD card
Use the default android browser and visit the Fujitsu site at:

http://spf.fmworld.net/fujitsu/c/update/nttdocomo/f-01d/update1/top/index.html
(NOTE: that if you visit this site from a PC, you'll only be able to download the update package, not the android app that actually performs the update.)

Click the 「OSバージョンアップデートダウンロードページへ」button, then on the next page, scroll down to the bottom and click agree 「同意する」after which the updater apk will be automatically downloaded. First install, then run the updater app, making sure you have 1) 50% battery (at least) and 2) enabled sideloading of applications.
Follow the directions and make sure you keep the tablet on a power source.

Engrish. I was presented with this because I pre downloaded the update package.

See below for a screenshot of the same in Japanese.

Wifi-only FAR7

This one can be updated with less trouble because the updater app can be downloaded from a PC and installed on the tablet from this link:

http://www.fmworld.net/arrows/wifi/support/download/software/

Scroll down and select the link to download the apk, and if you have adb enabled, install it with the command, adb install FAR7_SWUpdater04.apk. From there, the process is the same. Note that you can also download the update package in advance and copy that over, but that is more hassle.

The wifi version has often had these errors with android.process.media. I guess at some point I need to look into that because it's obviously not yet fixed.

b-mobile 3G Nano SIMs for the iPhone 5

2012-11-19T14:54:00.003+09:00

The b-mobile Smartphone Voice SIMs now have nano SIMs. From 3 pm today, they'll be available for purchase online from JCI. I'll update this post with the link once it goes live. However, these SIMs are 3G FOMA SIMs and, even if a fix for Docomo LTE on the iPhone 5 is found, these SIMs will not provide LTE access. Ever.

There was of course a video that came out showing that Docomo's LTE network (Xi) can be made to work with an iPhone 5, but none of our readers have been able to recreate with success. All of them are still stuck with a 3G connection.

The price and terms are the same: ¥3,150 activation fee, 3-month minimum commitment

Voice Plan
- S: ¥1,290 for 32.5 min (¥21/30s per additional minute)
- M: ¥2,290 for 75 min (¥18.9/30s additional)
- L: ¥3,710 for ~357 min (¥14.7/30s additional)
Data Plan
- U200: ¥1,690 (200 kbps)
- 2GB Flat Rate: ¥2,990 (best effort)
Nano, micro, normal SIM size

Keep in mind that you're not out a whole lot if you get this SIM now, and an LTE version comes out some time later because you only need to use the SIM for 3-months to avoid a ¥5,250 early termination fee. You would need to pay a new fee for another SIM card, though.

NTT Docomo's "Hanashite Honyaku" machine translation app

2012-11-18T12:52:00.001+09:00

EDIT: this was posted in a hurry. Here's the market link to the app called はなして翻訳

We've been waiting to get our hands on this for a while. A full review will be coming later, but, suffice it to say, this machine translation app works surprisingly well. Granted, expectations were low from the start. It does fine with the easy basic stuff that you might encounter trying to give directions on the street.

The above image shows me speaking in Japanese, saying 「このアプリは私の変な日本語を理解できるのでしょうか？」。This was one of the first things I said to it, and was absolutely shocked that it got it right - That is exactly what I said in Japanese. It's definitely hit and miss though. I've had about the same results speaking to it in both Japanese and English.

So I decided to throw something a little more difficult at it: some classics from the Japanese comedy duo The Rahmens. Totally crashed and burned but certainly get an "E" for effort.

寿司は下駄に載せて出されます。
Sushi ha geta ni nosete dasaremasu.
Sushi is served on geta.

主人は実家に助け出されます。
shujin ha jikka ni tasuke dasaremasu.
The master is saved by the parent's house.
消毒したものを使用していますので、安心して寿司を食べられます。
shoudoku shita mono wo shiyou shitemasunode, anshin shite sushi wo taberaremasu.
Disinfected geta are used so you can relax and enjoy the sushi.

承諾したものを使用していますので、安心して寿司を調べられます。
shoudaku shita mono wo shiyou shitemasunode, anshin shite sushi wo shiraberaremasu.
Because I use the thing which I consented to, it is checked in place.
これをそのままはいて帰る人も居ます。
kore wo sonomama haite kaeru hito mo imasu.
Some people just wear them home.

これをそのまま入れ替える人がいます。
kore wo sonomama irekaeru hito ga imasu.
There is the person who just replaces this.
多くの日本人の足から酢の臭いがするのは、このためです。
ooku no nihonjin no ashi kara su no nioi ga suru no ha, kono tame desu.

多くの日本人らしから常に変化しなかったためです。
ooku no nihonjin rashi kara tuneni henka shinakatta tame desu.
This is because much Japanese rashikara did not always change.

Here's the audio transcript (no video, just audio). There's a bonus from the "ShimBASH" video at the end.

If you want to try this out, it is free for docomo subscribers who:

You are a Docomo user with an active data plan.
Connected with FOMA 3G or Xi LTE - NO WIFI CONNECTIONS.

I am told the app won't even appear in the market unless you have a Docomo SIM card. If wifi is turned on and connected, the app with tell you to shut off wifi before proceeding (with a "confirmation" button). So Sorry, no SBM and KDDI freeloaders! The requirement for an active mobile data connection to the online voice recognition and translation servers is a brilliant move by Docomo. If you're a Japanese person who wants to use it overseas, you have to pony up for international roaming. How's that for shrewd?

本当にドコモのベースバンド(radio.img)で上書きする必要はあるのか？

2012-11-16T17:29:00.001+09:00

Editors Note: See below for English.

ドコモ版Galaxy Nexus(SC-04D)がJB4.1にアップデートされたタイミングで手元のデバイスをJB 4.2 (JOP40C)にアップデートしました。

Factory Images "takju" for Galaxy Nexus "maguro" (GSM/HSPA+) (with Google Wallet)

このROMに含まれていたradio.imgのベースバンドはi9250XXLH1で、いつもはflash_all.shでアップデートすることはなくベースバンドはドコモバージョンを残しておくか上書きするのですが、今回はせっかくなのでグローバル版のベースバンドとドコモ版のベースバンドの通信状況を比較してみました。

試しに焼いてみたのは下記radio.img。

2012.06.10: SC04DOMLE3 radio.
2012.11.13: JRO03C.SC04DOMLK2 build. (yakjusc, ドコモ版)
2012.11.13: i9250XXLH1 radio. (takju, アメリカ版, 下のスクリーンショット)

これらを各々インストールした後、通信状況やスピードなどをドコモのFOMA SIMで試してみたのですが、有意な差はありませんでした。(n=2)
なので結論からいうと、気にせず最新のブートローダやradio.imgを焼いても問題がなさそうです。これで迷うことなくROM焼きができますね。

Comparing Galaxy Nexus radio (baseband) between docomo vs global

I have 2 Samsung Galaxy Nexus handsets, and I compared the radio baseband version of those two after updating on the same day. I always leave the docomo radio because I assumed the baseband that the carrier releases includes better support for local radio frequencies or optimized for bandwidth / speed / packet size.

But after comparing, I couldn't find a significant difference between the following basebands:

2012.06.10: SC04DOMLE3 radio.
2012.11.13: JRO03C.SC04DOMLK2 build. (yakjusc, docomo version)
2012.11.13: i9250XXLH1 radio. (takju, US version, screenshot above)

Conclusion : Flash newer img bundle with stock Google factory ROM.

KDDI has better Band 1 LTE coverage in Tokyo than Softbank

2012-11-16T14:46:00.004+09:00

Via Ishikawa Tsutsumu's twitter.

According to data put together by NTT Docomo, to show how much ahead they are with Band 1 (2100 MHz) LTE deployment, KDDI actually has a larger number of base stations in the 23 Ward area of Tokyo than Softbank. It is of course no surprise that Xi would have the largest number of stations, since Docomo was the first to deploy LTE.

Band 1 is the main band in Japan and the frequency that the iPhone supports.

KDDI is actually in a very good position to cover Tokyo for phones that support 800 MHz LTE, which I assume KDDI will be releasing in the future. This will provide great coverage below ground.

NTT Docomo smartphone trade in program

2012-11-16T14:36:00.001+09:00

Following Softbank Mobile, NTT Docomo will also begin a trade-in program for old phones. Only relatively newer phones are eligible. The oldest Samsung phone is the Galaxy S, and the oldest Xperia is the Acro. Several feature phones are also included.

See the Docomo site for the full list of phones. NTT Docomo will credit up to ¥5,250 when upgrading to a new phone.

iPhone LTE data with a Docomo nano SIM

2012-11-13T12:07:00.001+09:00

Via commenter Willy comes a post purporting to have LTE data working on an iPhone using Docomo's Xi network. The post is in Japanese, so I'll explain below in English. It seems he:

Started a contract for Xi with a Docomo nanoSiM (aka nanoUIM) with an factory unlocked iPhone.
Turned on data roaming (Not sure why - maybe because DCM is not in carrier.plist?).
Set the APN to open.mopera.net.
Used iTunes to restore the 6.0.1 firmware, downloadable from here:
http://appldnld.apple.com/iOS6/041-8531.20121101.Fvjr6/iPhone5,2_6.0.1_10A525_Restore.ipsw

His carrier version is 13.0. He confirmed that power cycling the phone, yanking (and replacing) the SIM, and turning off roaming didn't affect the ability to connect to LTE. Turning off automatic carrier selection shuts off data, however.

If this works for a Docomo SIM, it should work for a b-mobile SIM. I don't have any idea why simply restoring the firmware would work. As always, do any of this sort of thing at your own risk!

B-Mobile visitor SIM airport pickup

2012-11-08T16:53:00.000+09:00

JCI's new Airport pickup Service allows Visitor SIMs to received directly from an airport post office. For an additional ¥210 a SIM card can be sent to New Chitose, Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Kansai, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Naha International Airports. This appears to use Japan Post's Yubinkyoku-dome（郵便局留め）service. A passport is all that is needed for pickup.

A word of warning: Confirm that your flight is scheduled to land during the post office's operating hours! If you flight is delayed or your other wise don't have tim to pick up the SIM before it closes, the package cannot be redirected to your hotel. You'll have to go back and pick it up the following day, which can be quite expensive and time consuming, depending on how far away the airport is located.

This is something that JCI should have done from the beginning. There was originally no differentiation between the standard U300 and Visitor SIMs, other than of course the English support. After prices were increased for the Visitor SIMs, no additional value was added. Airport pickup service now gives people more of a reason to purchase a Visitor SIM.

The extra fee for airport pick up is a bit dubious, though, because the post office doesn't charge any extra for Yubinkyoku-dome.

Review of docomo LG L-04D

2012-11-02T21:00:00.000+09:00

The docomo L-04D is one of the newer (2012 summer model) "pocket Wi-Fi" solutions to enter the "me too" market that was first pioneered by eMobile in the Japan. Unlike many other devices, this one is LTE. After having used it constantly for a month, I can say that it's definitely a keeper and will be my regular data device for my Nexus 7 — as well as my laptops and Wi-Fi only iPads when I'm on vacation in Wi-Fi less areas.

The actual device comes in either white or red, with a black LED panel lit in blue covering one third of the device. It comes with a Velcro-closing gray pouch with the docomo LTE "Xi" (Crossy) brand on it, allowing you to throw it in your bag without worrying about scratching it. As the pouch is soft, you will still need to worry about pressure from other items in your bag pressing the buttons, though all the buttons require them to be depressed for more than two seconds for them to do anything.

The back thin lid can be pried off to insert the miniUIM (aka "micro SIM") – that is located underneath the battery – by prying the clipon back from the microUSB port. You will need long nails and a little bit of strength and practice to open it up. The IMEI, serial number, factory default SSID (which will be in the form "L04D_XXXXXXXX" where X is a hexadecimal digit, and factory default WPA security key (another different eight digit hex string) are printed.

The actual device is SIM-locked, and will only take SIMs that MNC and MCC set to "Japan" (440) and "docomo" (10), respectively. I do not know if there is an official (or unofficial way) to unlock the device. Furthermore, when the device is in Japan, you cannot select the carrier APN; it is locked to Docomo's data "moperaU" based network. When you are overseas, however, you can select the network provider.

The battery is changeable, and it uses a smartphone-use 1650mAh "L17" battery, which is used by another LG pocket Wi-Fi (the L-03D device that plugs into your USB port) device. The spec sheet says you should be able to get 4 hours of continuous use on LTE, five hours on 3G, and I've used the device hard with a tablet, and I can confirm that I'm hitting that number doing moderately heavy web activity — downloads but no video streaming. The specs claim 160 hours of idle time, but I didn't test this, and it's unlikely you'd ever hit this due to the default auto-idle power off of wifi and the fact that most devices these days are always doing some sort of minimal network activity in the background.

When the device is operating, either in 3G or LTE mode, the whole device will get very warm. In winter it could double as a hand-warmer, especially with the felt pouch.

The microUSB 2.0 port serves three functions:

charging, either while off or while operating
providing a read-only mass-storage USB drive to provide a tethering/"modem" driver for Windows. A driver is not needed for MacOS.
providing tethering/wired internet capability for Windows OS, which is used to access Japanese-carrier mail (@mopera.net)

It will behave as a proper USB device and identify itself to the computer with a "LG Electronic, Inc." major/minor ID of 1004:6329. It does not need the USB to have its data pins active or shorted (in other words, all USB chargers should work), and it only needs the minimum amount of current provided by USB (500mA) and can charge and operate at the same time; you do not need a high-current USB charger for it. A charger is not included with the purchase of the device. The other minor purpose the USB port serves is that it's opening hole serves as the leverage point for prying the rear cover off.

I did not test the Windows driver or its tethering capability or mail capability, but there are instructions for setting up the virtual dialing on both Windows and Mac (sorry, no Linux) to access the carrier mail.

It's at thin as a modern smartphone (12.9mm) and much lighter (89g), and has exactly three buttons:

a power button, which powers the unit on or off after holding it for 3 seconds. It will also "wake" the device if you've set the power savings mode (set to on by default) if you press it momentarily, and even when awake it will light the LED screen showing the status of the device for about 15 seconds.
a Wi-Fi on/off button, which turns the access point on/off if held for 3 seconds while leaving the cell radio unchanged. The Wi-Fi defaults to turning off to save battery automatically after 10 minutes on inactivity. The timeout can be changed in the settings, including disabled.
a WPS button. When pressed for three seconds, the device will enter "push button WPS" mode, which allows a Nexus 7 (or other Jellybean device) or anything else that supports WPS to negotiate, within a 2 minute window, the SSID and the password for the device. This is pretty handy, as although you can change the SSID of the device, you cannot change the hard to remember password, which is a 8 letter hexadecimal sequence. The Jellybean-based Nexus 7's WPS function works like a charm here. The extra security concious may change from push-button 2 minute window based WPS to PIN code based WPS through the settings, or disable it completely.

The LTE speed in Japan is very good; I was routinely getting over 80% of the 75Mbps downstream and 25Mbps upstream speeds. In the 23 wards of Tokyo, I did not notice it going into 3G mode for any serious periods of time. Cell negotiation is pretty fast, so if you're underground in the Metro and signal isn't available in the tunnels, you can get about 25 seconds of usage per station between cell handshake completion and loss of signal. I tested it overseas in the San Francisco area; it wanted to connect to either AT&T or T-Mobile, and connected at 3G speeds. In South Korea, it connected to SK.

The Wi-Fi access point does 11b/g/n (you can force it to 11b only, 11b/g, 11g only, or 11n only), but Japanese style, which means 2.4Ghz only (5Ghz is not permitted for use outdoors for 11n or 11a in Japan). You cannot select channel 14 for 802.11b. Japan mode gives you 13 channels, but there is also a U.S. mode (11 channels) as well as a mode for Korea and Canada. You can force it to use a particular channel but the default auto mode will do its best to pick the least congested frequency range. The default encryption is WPA2/PSK/AES256 but you can set it to weaker protocols for devices such as the Nintendo DSi. The DHCP server gives out 192.168.2.0/24 addresses by default, and allows a maximum of ten (10) simultaneous connections. It supports IPv4 only. UPnP support can be enabled. WAN ping is disabled by default. Like most consumer routers, the IP address range, the default address, etc., can all be changed in the web configuration.

The status screen is mostly icons, but with some Japanese. The most interesting things on the screen for most people will be:

whether you're connected to a cell yet, if it's 3G or LTE, and the signal strength
how many clients/devices/laptops are currently connected to the device
the battery life left
the amount of data you've sent/received. This odometer resets every month. While the recommended data plan is unlimited, you can look at this and tell if something is weird with your consumption. You can also set a hard cap via the web Connection Manager.

When connected overseas, the carrier is displayed in a plain font. When connected domestically to docomo, you get a graphical brand rendition of the carrier docomo.

One Wi-Fi client connected

shutdown screen; a couple seconds

boot screen; lasts a few seconds

finished booting, trying to find cell

Connected to cell with 0 Wi-Fi connections

power off and charging

Connection Manager in English on Chrome

The web "L-04D Connection Manager" defaults to address 192.168.2.1 with a hard-coded username of "Admin" and a preset password of "0000". The device is pretty much plug & play, in that most people, especially with WPS, will never need to use the web configuration to make it work. One exception is if you go overseas with it; you will need to confirm the carrier/APN the first time you use it with Docomo's WorldWing overseas pake-hōdai plan. The web interface allows for English or Japanese. It is PIN protected and defaults to "0000", which can and should be changed through the settings. You cannot change the Wi-Fi password, however. The manager is written in non-complex CGI-ish HTML with some Javascript but nothing at AJAX level and seems to work just fine on simple devices like Flash-less mobile touch screen devices as well as minor browsers such as Opera. The web connection manager controls receiving over-the-air firmware updates for bug fixes, etc. The default setting is to check for a new update every time the Connection Manager is used.

If you've ever used a consumer Wi-Fi router, most of the (non-advanced) features and functionality you expect will be in this interface, including an extremely primitive firewall, MAC address restrictions, etc. 99% of L-04D customers will never need to touch this stuff to make the device useful.

In conclusion, the L-04D delivers what it claims to do, and pretty much stays out of sight / out-of-mind, which is exactly what it's supposed to do. I can now travel to work, with the access point hidden in my bag, using my Nexus 7 to read the news and surf the net while I travel in and out of midtown for work. The performance is as good as it gets speed wise for Japanese LTE, even during peak periods (rush hour). Overseas the performance was not as nearly as fast (3G), but the speed was more than adequate. While I only tested in the 23 wards of Tokyo, I received a LTE signal over a 3G signal 95% of the time (I can force a 3G signal by going underground in my home). If a pocket Wi-Fi device at LTE speeds is what you're looking for, you could do far worse than the L-04D.