A panel of experts commissioned by the communications ministry has issued a report urging the nation's three mobile phone carriers to reform their rate plans, which put long-term subscribers and people who don't use much data communication on their smartphones at a disadvantage. The pressure is expected to result in a modest reduction in mobile phone fees. But the reform as called for by the panel is only the first step. Both the government and the carriers should be ready to do more to reduce fees and make rate plans easy to understand for consumers.
The panel was created at the urging of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who in September ordered Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi to consider ways to reduce the burden of mobile phone bills on households. Abe's call may have been intended to signal voters ahead of the Upper House election this summer that his administration is doing what it can to make life easier for consumers.
But the requested steps won't address many other problems that exist under the effective oligopoly of NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank — comparatively high mobile phone charges and the carriers' high profitability ensured by their rate system. All relevant parties should be aware that much more needs to be done to lower rates across the board and to improve related services.