“It’s not about the price, it’s about the quantity – You can now buy a SIM-free iPhone, but you should check your data allowance again

Well, we can finally buy a SIM free iPhone in Japan! I think this is great news. I think this is great news. And there are a lot of articles about this SIM free iPhone.

However, as I always think, although there are a lot of stories about the “price” of prepaid SIMs, I think there are too few discussions about “data traffic”.

Prepaid SIMs are certainly cheap, but there are always “data limits”: if you exceed 1GB or 2GB, the price goes up, or the speed is limited.

従いまして、用途に応じてどの程度の通信量なのか、この把握がとっても大事。データ通信量の検討なしに料金比較なんて意味が無いと思います。

So, before.

I’d like to re-publish the part about the amount of data communication per day while I was traveling abroad. (I’ve added a few things.)

↓Excerpt from here

Data usage per day is around 120MB

Here’s a bullet list of the main uses per day, broken down by degree of data usage.

「使用量意外と少なめかも」※気にせずガンガン使ってもOK

• 移動中のGoogle Map ナビと検索
• 今ココなうによる現在地発信
• Twitterのタイムラインの確認
• iOSまたはTwitterクライアントからTwitterへの写真投稿

「使用量ちょっと多めかも」※通信量を気にしながら使うべき

• iOSからFacebookへの写真投稿
• （やや控え気味だったけど）ウェブブラウジング
• 10枚（10MB）程度のPicasaへの写真アップロード

I thought that the amount of data usage of browsing was more than I thought. I think it is better to be conscious a little when using it.

On the other hand, what really helped me was how little data Google Maps used! I was surprised by this.

The search doesn’t take much usage either. I’m sure you can use it all without worry. Excellent!

Data usage totals about 1.2GB over 18 days

In the end, I used 1.2GB during the trip. I think it was because I became a little cautious about using it, and because the communication situation was not so good in the latter half of the trip in many rural areas.

Even though it was a bit of a waste, if I had stayed in an area with a slightly better signal, I think the additional charge amount would have been appropriate.

↑Excerpt ends here.

なかでも特に大事なのは、「控えめのウェブブラウジングであっても2週間で1GBを超えたこと」.

There were quite a few days during the trip when I didn’t do any web browsing. Even if I did, I used the hotel’s WiFi, so I thought I’d cut down on communication charges. But I still used this amount.

Prepaid SIMs are cheap, but if you surf the web too much, you could end up using several gigabytes of data in no time at all, and your bill could go up.

プリペイドSIMは、「料」よりも「量」を強く意識したほうがよいと、個人的には思います。