The communications ministry said Thursday that to prompt further cuts in mobile phone charges, it will change the criteria for calculating the fees charged by cell phone firms to other telecom carriers using their networks.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will consider revising the pricing system for interconnection fees for the first time since 2001, according to ministry officials.
The ministry plans to draft a law change by this autumn that would take effect as early as 2010, they added.
At present, cell phone carriers charge about ¥35 per three minutes in interconnection fees when other carriers use their phone lines to enable communication among subscribers of different carriers. The charges are included in the total fee subscribers pay.
In contrast, the interconnection fee charged by NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp., which provide land line phone services, is fixed at just under ¥5 per three minutes, or one-seventh of the fee charged by cell phone firms.
This has invited criticism that mobile carriers' interconnection fees are too high, even though a simple comparison between fixed and mobile phone pricing systems is difficult as each type of carrier uses different telecom equipment.