The wifi-hire.com service and Pocket WiFi D25HW are an effective way of taking internet with you through the main suburban areas of Japan. The device has HSDPA compatibility with speeds that are up to 7.2Mbps, and in real world testing I saw up to 6 Mbps in the middle of major urban centers. This is a pretty good result and is more than enough for most people's needs. Upload speeds were typically around 1.5Mbps, rounding out the speed of the connection. The connection is quite reliable, and I didn't have any drop-outs in my time using the service. There's no data cap on the wifi-hire.com service so you don't have to worry about racking up scary bills for watching too many videos of cats.
Coverage is a mixed bag, depending on where you are going. In the middle of Kobe I was getting speeds of 1Mbps download, whilst in Okayama I was getting anywhere between 3.5Mbps to 6Mbps depending on the time of day. In some rural areas there was no coverage at all, even though I had data coverage on my cellphone. It's important to recognize that speeds will differ depending on how many people are using the telecom's network, so it'll typically be fastest during the early morning hours each day. If you're looking to hold important skype calls or other network-sensitive connections then you might want to do it in the morning.
The device I used is the D25HW which is produced by Huawei and distributed by EMOBILE, which in turn is marketed by eAccess. The device connects up to five WiFi-enabled devices, and has a reasonable range though I didn't test the exact distances. For the most part I preferred to use it as a wireless modem attached to my laptop through a USB (A to mini B). It's powered through the USB port and came with a AC to USB mini B plug. It supports WiFi b/g with the standard WPA2, WPA and WEP encryption types. It has WPS and even a microSDHC slot. It's a fairly simple but complete device, providing a basic but reliable internet connection.
The benefits of this device whilst travelling are great. It means you can take internet wherever you go, giving you internet access on the train, in random hotels and on a park bench if you so desire. You're also guaranteed a private connection instead of the dangerous free WiFi networks that you can find in hotels, restaurants and train stations. It gives you control over some of the network settings letting you choose how you want to configure your connection which is great for geeks. It's small enough that it can be tucked away and it has a battery for those times you can't plug it in. The wifi-hire.com service as a whole is great and the device's user-experience was pleasant.
