The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday approved a proposed legal revision to lower fees for mobile phone services amid criticism that domestic carriers charge too much compared to other countries.
The bill to revise the telecommunications business law will next move to the Diet. It would ban carriers from offering plans that cover both the price of the phone itself and connection fees.
Carriers currently 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.