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Comment by peterburkimsher | Hacker News Reader

I'm of the latter variety: use it until it ends.

It wasn't a Kindle, but another country's prepaid SIM that I continued using while in Japan. Phone companies in Japan don't do prepaid: only phone rentals by the day, or 2 year subscriptions. Neither of those were suitable for the 2 months I lived there.

Some international SIM cards would run out of balance and send an SMS as a warning. But others would redirect me to a topup page. Let's just say that wasn't the only page that was available, and the "send this page to a friend" email function is very convenient when Japanese phones have incoming email addresses for sending email-to-SMS.

Google calendar used to be a great way to get free email-to-RSS-to-SMS notifications, but that shut down a couple of years ago unfortunately.

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> Phone companies in Japan don't do prepaid: only phone rentals by the day, or 2 year subscriptions.

Prepaid data (sans voice/SMS) have been easily accessible at reasonable prices for at least 6 years; they are now ubiquitous and can be bought at electronics stores, airports, and the occasional convenience store.

These days the 2y term requirement only applies when you get a plan with a subsidized smartphone or pocket wifi. Though you still need (IIRC) 6 month min on your stay for any subscription, so prepaid or rental is the only way if you stay for shorter. High-speed LTE data is cheap and available but SMS/voice is nigh impossible for non-long-term-residents (which is extra problematic given how practically everything/everyone in Japan assume you can provide a Japanese voice number they can call, and LINE does age verification through your mobile provider).

> Phone companies in Japan don't do prepaid

In case you ever go back: https://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/

I've used this on several trips and it works well.

Unless of course you were living there more permanently, in which case the above is not useful.

Prepaid where the credit expires after 21 days sounds more like a subscription that lasts 3 weeks and cancels safely.

With my current prepaid SIM, I typically top up $5 every 3 months. Between iMessage, WhatsApp/WeChat/KakaoTalk/Skype/Facebook, free incoming calls, and the occasional emergency SMS, I usually don't need a phone. People don't like it when I don't have a local number though.

Are you saying you have a $5/3mo SIM that allows roaming in Japan? Details please?

That's cheaper than most plans in any country, let alone roaming.

I don't, sorry! That's how much I use on a prepaid SIM card now in New Zealand, and is typical for my (very low) phone usage.

I think they're just adding the minimum amount to prevent the minutes expiring and the phone subsequently being cancelled, which I assume happens after 3 months. They would still have to typical rates pay per minute or MB for any usage.

I add the minimum. In many countries (Switzerland, UK, New Zealand) the minutes don't expire, and the number is mine to keep unless it doesn't connect to a network at all for a year or more.

Yes, I pay per minute for outgoing calls, or MB of usage - and those costs are high. That's why I try to use WiFi whenever possible, and use offline maps, offline Wikipedia, etc.

https://www.cable.co.uk/mobiles/worldwide-data-pricing/

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