Japan Moves to Adopt Number Portability for Mobile Phones

On the 26th, MPHPT held ”The 5th meeting of the Study Group on Mobile Number Portability (“MNP”)”. MNP is a mechanism which enables users to retain the same telephone number even if they change their mobile phone carrier. The outline of the proposal written in the report, which is based on the discussions held so far, was presented with the clear conclusion that “it is appropriate to introduce mobile number portability system”.


Service is more important than cost

During the Study Group's previous meeting, various benefits and cost estimations were presented that resulted in much higher costs compared to other foreign countries, rising questions about “what kind of functions could be deleted to achieve lower costs”.

So this time, cost estimations calculated by mobile phone carriers were presented. Three functions were deleted including the “guidance function” which informs about the rough cost of a communication when a call is made from a land phone to a mobile phone, making an estimated total saving of 4.6 billion Yen in development fees and equipment expenses. However, “if 10% of users use MNP” development fees and equipment expenses are to total 91.5 billion Yen, erasing hopes for significant cost reductions in this case.

Although some people declared “we want to know the breakdown of the costs indicating what kind of expenses are needed for different functions and services”, NTT Docomo's Mr. Tsujimura replied “Cost estimates are only cost estimates, and there is no need to discuss about their details right now. We must build a system without bugs or errors if it's going to be something really useful for our society, even if it implies huge costs”, showing an attitude adhering to providing user-oriented service.


Remaining issues

Then, the outline of the Study Group's report was introduced by the MPHPT. Its point of argument is that although MNP itself requires considerable costs for its introduction, it will be a convenient service for many people so it is better to introduce it as soon as possible.

In past deliberations, there have been opinions that it should be limited to 3G, but the current proposal states “it is advisable that MNP is introduced to all systems,” and it further assumes carriers to bare the total cost of building the system and of operations, while users pay a lump sum of 1,000 Yen each time they use MNP.

Many questions were raised by various members of the committee regarding the proposal. For instance, because the wording “It is desirable that MNP is a common service among all carriers” conjures up the idea of duty, it was feared that it would be an obstacle to new entries in the mobile phone business, and there were fears that operating costs of carriers would increase as they try to tie their users and as a result they won't be able to lower their fees, or that the price of mobile phones would increase.

There were worries that the price of mobile handsets would increase, but because a marketing strategy can be considered whereby they are sold at a cheaper price to users who remain with the same carrier, not only bad news is expected on this front. However, the report mentions that the incentives currently paid by the carriers to the stores only benefit users who purchase new handsets frequently, and it states this system should be reconsidered.

At present, some concrete proposals to introduce MNP are presented such as the “transfer method” for calls generated from a land phone to a mobile and “redirection method” for calls made from a mobile to another mobile. In the particular case of a call made from a land line to the mobile of a user who switches carriers frequently, the call will be transferred through the networks of various carriers with “transfer method”, and as a result the network connection fee may become inflated, but there were opinions expressing that concrete implementation methods should be left to the carriers.

As for handling e-mail addresses, its realization is difficult in terms of system, and as the results of the questionnaire showed that users did not feel any major impediment, continuous use of e-mail address will not be considered, but alternative proposals were recommended such as transfer functions or functions to inform the new e-mail address.


Docomo and KDDI to provide caller ID service

Taking a lead on MNP which is expected to require some time before it is introduced, it was deemed desirable to introduce a service providing information about the number change. To this, Docomo's Mr. Tsujimura replied “our company is considering it (for implementation)” and KDDI's Mr. Okinaka declared “it will be implemented around the summer”.
The Study Group is planning to meet again twice in March and in April, and the schedule for introducing MNP is expected to be made clear by the Study Group at the end of March. As it took about two years to implement number portability on land lines, the current view is that it will take a similar time frame to realize it on mobile phones.

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