Skype Wi-fi Provider in Japan

Hi,

I'm planning to use Skype Wi-fi in Japan for my 2weeks trip.

Can anyone suggest which Skype Wi-fi provider is the best both in price and coverage areas?

Has anyone tried Tomizone as it offers the cheapest (much cheaper than the others)?

Also, how could I get started with Skype Wi-fi (the website is shown in Japanese & the Google translation left me with guessing)?
Is it correct that I have to buy credit that covers the 1st session(30mnts duration) for first time use?


Thanks
Josie

Can anyone suggest which Skype Wi-fi provider is the best both in price and coverage areas?

I'd suggest reading up on skype wifi on their homepage, as it seems you have a misunderstanding of how it works.

http://www.skype.com/intl/en/features/allfeatures/skype-wifi/

Coverage area doesn't matter since you can choose whatever provider is available for where you are. Often times you do not have much choice and will have to use the one that is available. However, you can easily jump between different providers at any time. Their individual rates will be shown when you try to connect and you can choose the cheapest one at that time.

Note that Skype wifi is a prepaid, pay as you go service. You buy credit and then pay for the individual minutes you use rather than for a daypass as with traditional paid wifi.

Has anyone tried Tomizone as it offers the cheapest (much cheaper than the others)?

Hmm, Tomizone doesn't seem to have any hotspots in Japan, at least according to their website's hotspot finder.

http://www.tomizone.com/wifi_users/locate

That might be a mistake with the skype site though, as I recall being able to choose from several more providers than what they list. Also, some of the provider names don't match up with the actual hotspot names, for example NTT's hotspots show up as "003" rather than "NTT".

Anyway, when I've tried out skype wifi I mostly saw NTT and mobilepoint hotspots. I didn't find any noticable difference between providers.

Also, how could I get started with Skype Wi-fi (the website is shown in Japanese & the Google translation left me with guessing)?

Try the link I posted above. If it still comes up in Japanese then select your language from the buttons at the bottom of the page.

Is it correct that I have to buy credit that covers the 1st session(30mnts duration) for first time use?

The smallest chargeup depends on your currency. In USD its $10 for example.

https://support.skype.com/en-us/faq/FA570/What-is-Skype-Credit

Thanks for the reply :)

It does clear up my confusion previously that we have to choose one provider first or we could choose any provider available within the hotspots.

i think that skype is suitable for my trip condition and will try this option for Wi-fi

Cheers
Josie

great, let us know how you find it.

I'm not familiar with Skype WiFi but I did use Skype with WiFi network in the Hotel when I was in Japan.
Most of the hotels have WiFi network so I guess you can use them.
If you want to use on the go, I recommend these WiFi router providers.

http://www.softbank-rental.jp/en/phones/sim3g.php
http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/simrent.html
http://www.econnectjapan.com/