Good morning, it’s まさきん.
Here’s the conclusion up front: most regrets come from not having enough information before signing up. The low price is genuinely appealing. But there are also regrets you could have avoided just by knowing a few things in advance.
This time, I’m drawing on my own switching experience and what I’ve heard from people around me. Let’s look at the three patterns that trip people up the most.
Regret 1: Underestimating signal and coverage
The most common regret is “the connection is worse than I expected.” Rakuten Mobile covers its network using both its own towers and partner-network roaming. Partner-network roaming means borrowing another carrier’s network.
If you sign up without knowing this, it’s easy to get anxious about why the connection quality varies by location. Right after I switched, I had moments where the signal felt weak underground or deep inside buildings. At first, I worried I’d made a mistake.
That said, checking the coverage map for your home and workplace beforehand resolves most of that anxiety. I’d recommend checking the official coverage map once before signing up.
Regret 2: Not knowing about the “Rakuten Link” app until after signing up
To get certain perks like free calls, Rakuten Mobile requires you to use its dedicated app, Rakuten Link. Some people don’t realize this and just dial out using their phone’s standard call app. It’s a common source of confusion: “wait, why am I being charged for this call?”
I wasn’t used to it either, right after switching. I even forgot the app existed and made a call the old way a few times.
Installing the app right after signing up puts your mind at ease. Just poking around in it a little is usually enough to avoid this particular “I didn’t know” regret.
Speaking as a marketer, switching carriers is a bit like migrating to a new tool. Treating the first few days as an “adjustment period” might be the trick here.
Regret 3: Choosing based on “it’s cheap” without understanding the plan structure
Rakuten Mobile’s plan uses tiered pricing that scales with your data usage. Some people sign up with just a vague “it’s cheap” impression. Depending on how you actually use data, though, the bill can end up different from what you expected.
Put the other way around, checking your rough monthly data usage before signing up avoids this gap entirely. In our household, we checked each family member’s monthly data usage beforehand. We got a rough sense of it from each phone’s settings screen before switching.
I’ve also broken down the plan structure in more detail in this article about the rate plan. Worth a look alongside this one.
The tiered pricing felt a little confusing to me at first, too. So it might be worth reviewing your own phone bill in numbers before signing up.
There’s an easy way to try this out.
Clicking this opens the Rakuten login page. Once you log in, you’ll see the campaign details.
Small things you can prepare before signing up
What all three patterns have in common is this: a little research before signing up would have prevented the regret. Specifically, doing these three things before you sign up cuts down on regret quite a bit, in my experience.
| Prep | What to do |
|---|---|
| Check coverage | Look up your home, workplace, and frequently visited places on the coverage map |
| Preview the app | Get a rough sense of what Rakuten Link does and how to use it, before you need it |
| Know your usage | Check your current monthly data usage from your phone’s settings |
| Check early-cancellation terms | If you sign up on or after April 1, 2025 and cancel within a year, there’s an administrative fee (up to 1,078 yen) — worth knowing in advance |
If you want to go deeper on what to check before signing up, these four points to check before switching are worth a look too.
Wrap-up
The regrets people run into most after switching to Rakuten Mobile boil down to three things: signal coverage, the Rakuten Link app, and how the pricing plan works.
Put another way, a quick check on these three things before signing up is really all it takes. It should cut your odds of regretting the switch quite a bit.
If you’re considering switching, spend a few minutes checking these three things before you sign up. Get ahead of these regret points, and the switch itself might turn out to be a pretty satisfying choice.
Speaking as someone who’s actually been using it since switching, that’s genuinely how I feel about it. Please double-check the latest coverage details and plan terms on the official site, since they can change.
Clicking this opens the Rakuten login page. Once you log in, you’ll see the campaign details.
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This article includes machine-translated content. Please check the official Rakuten Mobile multilingual page for exact terms.
If you have concerns about Rakuten Mobile coverage or signal quality, you can consult through the official signal improvement request form .
