Monday, May 19, 2014

Japan 2014 - Internet

Rented my pocket wifi from Global Advanced Communications (GBA).

Some of the bad things I've read from the internet regarding GBA:
- "Battery was not fully charged when received item (Usually its fully charged)"
- "it only lasts 4 hours after a full charge"
- "takes 30mins to boot up"
- "gets really hot really fast"

Here's my experience:
- Email correspondence with GBA are quite prompt.
- Payment is required upfront and booking must be made on their website.
  - I booked my pocket WiFi in November 2013. I paid ¥9400 for 15 days.
  - My only beef was the dates I booked was from 8th-22nd April which I count as 14 days (¥9100) but GBA calculated it as 15 days (¥9400) but its only ¥300.
- They posted it directly to my hotel.

- Even though, the pocket wifi's battery was outstanding (lasting a whole day from 9 to 6pm), I went and bought me an Anker. No regrets. *You cannot buy batteries from Amazon UK from Australia, luckily, I had someone who was in UK and brought it back for me#thankyouAmazonPrimeTrial. I remember using it using it once or twice to charge the unit.



- I do leave it to charge overnight every night and unplug it when I wake up so I don't know how long it takes to fully charge the unit.
- I would turn it on around 9-10am and the battery would last until probably 6-8pm.
- It was warm but not boiling hot as some commented on forums
- I took probably 1-2 minutes to boot up

- This unit has a power saving mode. So to bring it back to connection, I would hold the power button for 2-3 seconds. Pressing it for 5 seconds or longer will turn it off.
- I didn't know this because I didn't read the manual. So until it was time to go home, throughout my entire trip... I was turning the unit off and on to get back my connection "which bloody keeps dropping out".
- Important lesson for me is to READ the bloody manual.
- I cannot stress how important it is to have internet on you while in Japan... #youreallyneedGPS

GAC001 Envelope waiting for me at reception 
GAC009 Inside was the reply paid envelope to post back to GBA
GAC008 ¥9400 paid up fron
GAC007 8th-22nd is not 15 days.
GAC010 Nice hard cover case
GAC011 Manual, Charger and Main unit
GAC016 Manual and charger
GAC021 Main unit charging
GAC017 View of the uinit with the power button on the front.
The WPS button is on the top on the unit along with the USB charging hole
GAC013 Never had a malfunction whilst I was in Japan
GAC012 Damn you *Saving mode*