Japan unveils ‘action plan’ to lower phone fees and spur competition

Japan action plan
Photo by stargazer84 | Bigstock.com

The Japan Times reports that the Japanese government has unveiled an action plan to spur competition among telecom firms in order to realize Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s push to lower domestic mobile phone fees, which are said to be high compared with those in other countries.

Mobile carriers have been criticized for locking consumers into contracts that include complicated fee systems and make it difficult to switch to competitors.

Under the action plan, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will set up a website within the year explaining the potential merits of switching carriers and offering guidance on how to do so.

The article also mentions that the country’s three biggest operators — NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank — will also be pushed to let smaller competitors rent their networks at a lower rate.

Lowering mobile phone fees has been one of Suga’s pet agendas since before he took office last month. He said in an August 2018 speech as chief Cabinet secretary that mobile carriers in Japan were charging much more than overseas counterparts and that fees could be brought down by around 40%.

Under the plan, the ministry is looking to promote the use of eSIMs that can be provisioned remotely. Detailed guidelines on how it will do so are to be drawn up by next summer.

The ministry is also considering allowing users to continue using the email address they were issued by mobile carriers even after switching over, similar to the portability already available for phone numbers.

From next fiscal year starting April, mobile carriers will not be able to charge consumers a ¥3,000 fee to continue using the same phone number after switching to a competitor if the application to transfer is made online.

Suga’s efforts to bring down mobile phone fees have so far yielded limited results. In October last year, a legal revision came into effect banning mobile carriers from charging high data fees in exchange for subsidizing device purchases.

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