The Japanese government has approved legislation aimed at lowering the cost of mobile services. Pending approval from parliament, the law would ban mobile operators from offering plans bundling the cost of services and a handset, reports Kyodo news agency.
Japanese operators place large fees on data usage in exchange for subsidizing device purchases, a model many users say is needlessly complicated. Instead, the companies would need to charge separately for data and devices, if the changes are approved. This is expected to make it easier for customers to compare prices and increase competition, communications minister Masatoshi Ishida told a news conference following a Cabinet meeting.
Two of the country’s three major carriers, SoftBank and KDDI, say they already comply with the new rules, while NTT Docomo has said it plans to do so this spring.According to the communications ministry, Japanese households spent an average JPY 100,250 on mobile fees in 2017, about 3 percent of their overall expenditures. From a global perspective, Japan’s mobile fees are relatively high. It costs about JPY 7,000 (EUR 55) a month to use 20 GB of data in Tokyo, top among comparable cities including New York, London and Seoul, the ministry’s latest statistics show.
The changes, which the government hopes to pass during the current Diet session through June, would also ensure that carriers cannot stop users from opting out in the middle of contracts, which often span two or four years. Other additions include a registration requirement for retailers that would give the government greater oversight, and new penalties for companies that use misleading sales tactics to attract users.
