Rakuten Mobile International Roaming Guide for Vietnam

This summary is based on the individual experience and information gathering of the user and is not intended for advertising, promotion, or stealth marketing by Rakuten Mobile, Inc.

Rakuten Mobile's "Rakuten Saikyo Plan" is extremely useful for those traveling to Vietnam, especially for those who want to maintain their life base in Japan. Here is a summary of the pros, cons, and countermeasures for each usage scenario.

Common benefits of Rakuten Mobile

These are the benefits obtained regardless of the length of stay in Vietnam.

Hassle-free connection:

You can communicate just by turning on your device settings without having to swap SIM cards or go through rental procedures.

Low-cost communication:

If you use the Rakuten Link app, calls from Vietnam to Japan and calls/SMS between Rakuten Link users are free.

Accessibility to Japanese online services:

Due to the nature of roaming connections, there is also the benefit that you may be able to access content services within Japan, but this is not always guaranteed due to terms of service or countermeasures by the service providers.

Benefits and challenges by usage scenario

1. Vietnam travel/short-term business trips (about a few days to 2 weeks)

Greatest benefit: You can use up to 2GB of high-speed data per month at no extra charge. It is sufficient for basic use such as map searches and messaging during your trip.

Challenges and countermeasures:

If you exceed 2GB, your communication speed will drop significantly (up to 128kbps). Refrain from watching videos, etc., and actively use Wi-Fi at hotels and cafes.

If you feel that the communication is unstable, please manually switch the roaming network to a stable carrier such as Viettel in your device settings.

2. Bridging for long-term business trips and long-term stays in Vietnam

Greatest advantage:

You can maintain your Japanese phone number and reliably handle important procedures such as credit card identity verification (SMS authentication) that occur during your stay. Maintaining a Japanese number is extremely important, especially since SMS authentication is often required as identity verification when booking airline tickets online. This is an inexpensive way to maintain your life infrastructure in Japan.

Challenges and countermeasures:

Data capacity shortage is unavoidable. Consider 2GB as just a "bridge" and limit its use until you can sign up for an inexpensive local SIM or Wi-Fi.

Instability of VoIP calls: Calls via apps like LINE (OTT communication) may tend to drop. Please try using it in a stable Wi-Fi environment or manually selecting the network.

3. Long-term residents in Vietnam (building a full-scale life infrastructure)

Greatest advantage:

As with the above, the point is that you can maintain an important Japanese phone number capable of handling airline ticket reservations and credit card identity verification (SMS authentication) at the minimum cost (from 1,078 yen including tax).

Solving challenges and recommendations:

A local phone number (SIM card) is essential for building a life infrastructure in Vietnam (bank accounts, VNeID, etc.).

For this reason, we strongly recommend using a smartphone that supports dual SIMs (physical SIM and eSIM) to achieve both the maintenance of your Japanese number and stable communication locally.

Recommended operation: It is efficient to register Rakuten Mobile as an eSIM (to maintain your Japanese number) and use a local SIM as a physical SIM.

Summary

Rakuten Mobile's international roaming is attractive for travel to Vietnam because of its ease of use, allowing you to use up to 2GB per month for free. For long-term residents in particular, the greatest advantage is being able to maintain a Japanese phone number at a low cost, allowing you to reliably perform important procedures such as credit card SMS authentication and identity verification when booking airline tickets even from overseas.

To achieve both stable communication in Vietnam and the maintenance of your Japanese number, using Rakuten Mobile as an eSIM on a dual-SIM compatible smartphone is the most recommended and smart way to use it.

This summary was created through a dialogue with Google's free AI assistant, "Gemini".