A Message to SoftBank After My Data Was Throttled: At Least Make the Speed-Restoration Page Load Fast

How Working with AI Used Up My Mobile Data

Last month, I happened to spend a lot of time working away from home. Sometimes I was at a cafe; other times I was waiting for a meeting or making use of a spare half hour. I increasingly found myself working with AI during those gaps, using my phone as a mobile hotspot each time.

Because ChatGPT and Claude are mainly text-based, I assumed they would use very little data compared with watching videos. In practice, however, I was asking AI to browse the web, generate files, and spend long periods reasoning while my connection remained active. Apparently, all that traffic had been accumulating without my noticing.

Eventually, my tethering allowance ran out and my connection was throttled by SoftBank, one of Japan’s major mobile carriers.

In Japan, mobile data allowances are casually referred to in “giga,” short for gigabytes. Running out is often called “giga death”: the moment you exhaust your monthly allowance and your connection becomes painfully slow.

And painfully slow it was. I could understand image-heavy websites failing to load, but even pages containing almost nothing but text remained blank no matter how long I waited. It reminded me of the dial-up era. The difference was that I was now paying a respectable monthly fee, so irritation arrived well before nostalgia.

The Page I Needed Would Not Open

Fortunately, mobile carriers sell additional data for situations like this. Pay a little extra, and your regular speed returns immediately. It is one of those rare moments when the interests of the customer and SoftBank align perfectly: I want my speed back, and the company wants my money.

I opened My SoftBank, the carrier’s online account portal, to buy more data.

But the one page I desperately needed would not load.

Of course it was slow because my connection had been throttled. But I was trying to open the page specifically to remove that restriction. It was like arriving at a hospital reception desk and saying, “I feel sick. Could I see a doctor?” only to be told, “Please come back to reception once you feel better.”

Surely, if there is one page a telecommunications company should ensure always remains accessible, it is this one.

YouTube Worked, but My SoftBank Did Not

The amusing part was that YouTube still worked normally.

Depending on the SoftBank plan, YouTube usage does not count toward the customer’s data allowance. Presumably, the two companies have an arrangement in place. As a customer, I appreciate that benefit.

But if SoftBank already has the ability to exempt a service from data limits, should My SoftBank not come before YouTube?

The page for watching videos worked, while the page where I was trying to say, “Please let me pay you more money,” did not.

Even as a business decision, the priorities seemed backward.

Let Customers Pay to Restore Their Connection

After repeated timeouts and reloads, I finally reached the additional-data purchase screen on roughly my fifth attempt. The moment the payment went through, my connection naturally returned to full speed.

As AI becomes part of everyday work, tethering data matters much more than it used to. It is easy to assume that a text-based interaction will use almost nothing, only to discover that web browsing, file transfers, and long active sessions have quietly consumed the entire allowance.

I have just one request for SoftBank.

Please exempt the page for removing a speed restriction from the speed restriction itself.

A system that tells a customer who is ready to pay, “First, please wait for our payment page to load,” is a little too absurd.