Appeal for Opinions on Draft Revision of “Guidelines for Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field”

1. Background of revision

　In November 2001, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) together with the Fair Trade Commission decided on, officially announced and has since successively revised “Guidelines for Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field” (hereinafter, “Joint Guidelines”) regulating basic thinking and problematic conduct, etc. in relation to the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 86 of 1984) and the Antimonopoly Act (Act No. 54 of 1947) respectively, from the point of view of promoting competition in the telecommunications business field.

　In October 2009, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) initiated the “Task Force for ICT Policy in a Global Era”, which has conducted studies aimed at implementation of the “Path of Light” concept with the objective of realizing broadband utilization in every household. Based on this, the Law for Partial Revision of the Telecommunication Business Law and Act on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, etc. (Act No. 58 of 2011 Law), which came into existence at the 177^th National Diet, partially revised Article 31 of the Telecommunications Business Act, together with which the Telecommunications Business Act Enforcement Regulations (1985 Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Order No. 25) were also partially revised. Due to these revisions, businesses that install Type 1 designated telecommunications equipment are obligated to carry out system maintenance and take other necessary measures for suitable management, etc. of information acquired in relation to connection work, as well as providing necessary and appropriate supervision of outsourcing subsidiaries, etc. Accordingly, there is a need to reflect these details in the “Joint Guidelines”.

　In addition, after studies by the Task Force, an inquiry concerning the “state of environmental maintenance for promotion of broadband diffusion” was submitted to the Information and Communications Council (Chairman: Takuma Ootoshi, Chairman of IBM Japan), and a reply was received stating that consideration should be given to the matter of whether there is scope for further transparency in relation to promotion of competition in the mobile market by reviewing these “Joint Guidelines” so as to ensure that there is no excessive contraction of results as far as businesses covered by application of the prohibited conduct regulations set forth in Article 30 of the Telecommunications Business Act are concerned.

　Based on the above, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has drawn up a draft revision of these guidelines.

2. Outline of appeal for opinions

Subject of appeal for opinions:

Draft revision of “Guidelines for Promotion of Competition in the Telecommunications Business Field”

Deadline for submission of opinions:

must arrive by 17:00 on March 19 (Mon), 2012 (mailed submissions must also arrive by this date)

　Please note that this revision plan can be inspected at the contact address provided at the end of this document, and will also be published in the “Reports and documents” area of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) website (http://www.soumu.go.jp) as well as in the “Public comment” field of e-Gov (http://www.e-gov.go.jp), the electronic coordinated government contact website.

3. Schedule

　The guidelines will promptly be revised and officially announced based on the opinions received.

Related reports and documents, etc

About Basic Policy concerning “Path of Light” Concept (published December 14, 2010)

Official Announcement of “2010 Assessment of State of Competition in Telecommunications Business Field” (published September 7, 2011)
State of Environmental Maintenance for Promotion of Broadband Diffusion – Report from Information and Communications Council (published December 20, 2011)