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Recently, friends in Ecuador told us that they pay $140 (about 14,000 yen) a month for a 1.5 Mb/s Internet connection. This made us realize how cheap Internet access is in Japan. For example, one staff member pays 6,000 yen a month for a 160 Mb/s cable connection! Stiff competition among Internet providers means they offer some great deals for new customers. For example, the leaflet below was in our mailbox this morning.
This is from NTT, the main phone provider in Japan, advertising their フレッツ光 (“Fletz Hikari”) fiber optic Internet service for just over 3000 yen a month. The leaflet also mentions that the following are free:
回線利用料まるまる１か月分 (“kaisen riyouryou marumaru ikagetsubun”, one month’s line usage)
初期工事費 (“shoki koujihi”, installation fee)
パソコン設定 (“pasokon settei”, PC setup)
But that’s not all! They’ll also throw in either a free laptop, or 20,000 yen in gift certificates! Time for us to switch providers, perhaps…