Mobile phone transfer fee Online procedure is free of charge September 7th 18:05

In the case of online procedures, we have decided to make the fee free when changing cell phone contracts.



We aim to promote price competition by making it easy to switch.

On the 7th, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Experts' Meeting compiled a draft review of the rules to encourage competition to reduce mobile phone charges.



As a result, when changing the contracted company while keeping the mobile phone number, it is supposed that the fee that currently costs 3000 yen should be free on the Internet, and it will be reduced to 1000 yen or less even at the store Is appropriate.



In addition, we ask that ▽ online transfer procedures be done in principle 24 hours a day, and ▽ prohibiting users who wish to transfer to another company from being held.



The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has decided to revise the related guidelines after soliciting a wide range of opinions, and has effectively decided to reduce the transfer fee.



The aim is to encourage price competition by allowing users to easily switch contracts.



The focus of the future will be whether the number of transfers will actually increase due to this review, which will lead to lower prices, which are considered to be more expensive than overseas.

The current status of mobile charges

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as of March, if the company with the most users uses 5 gigabytes of data per month, the charge in Tokyo was 6250 yen.



Although this is 8% cheaper than New York's JPY 6865, it is 3.4 times higher than London's 1800 yen, 3.1 times Paris's 1986 yen, and 1.5 times Seoul's 3931 yen, which is a high level compared to many major cities overseas.



The reason why the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is reviewing it is that the shares of the three major companies account for 90% of the total, and we recognize that there is not enough competition with cheap smartphones.



On the other hand, NTT Docomo, KDDI, and SoftBank's three major mobile phone companies say that they have reduced their charges over the past two years.



According to the three companies, the monthly data usage plan for 7GB to 5GB is from 7,000 yen to 5,000 yen, which is 33% to 17% lower than last year.



In addition, Rakuten has entered the mobile phone business since April with a charge of 2980 yen.



In this review, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications requested major mobile phone companies to reduce transfer fees, but we are considering a policy to further reduce charges.



Among them, the so-called “set discount” that discounts the fee when contracting for fixed communication using mobile phones and optical lines, etc. I'm going.

Movement over mobile charges

The discussion on the reduction of mobile phone charges has been accelerated because of the indication that there is room to reduce it by 40%.



After discussions at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications experts' meeting, the so-called "two-year binding", which sets a two-year communication contract instead of discounting the terminal price, was banned from last October.



The aim was to encourage competition by lowering the charges by requiring the users to compare the communication charges of each company by requiring the communication charges and terminal charges to be separated.



In addition, the penalties for canceling a two-year communication contract in the middle have been significantly reduced to prevent the overcrowding of users.



Furthermore, from November last year, users will be obliged to immediately remove the so-called "SIM lock" that makes it possible to use the terminal only with the contracted mobile phone company if the user wishes to sell it, and the user contracts. We have been promoting the creation of an environment that makes it easy to change destinations.

Expert "As a result of lowering communication charges"

Regarding the revised plan, Hideaki Yokota, research director of MM Research Institute, familiar with the telecommunications industry, said, "If procedures are simplified and fees are reduced, carriers will be transferred to some extent. If so, carriers will be more attractive. I think that will result in lower communication charges as a result of making a special plan."



In addition, Yokota said, "Japan's communication quality is at the highest level in the world, and it is not too high for users who want to use a solid communication infrastructure. However, for elderly people and people who do not use smartphones very much, I feel that it is expensive. If you do not suit you, you need to create an environment where you can transfer to another business operator."