Main Points of the Proceedings of the 913th Radio Regulatory Council



1. Date
  Wednesday, January 10, 2007
15:10 to 16:07PM
2. Venue
  Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications conference room (conference room No. 1002 on the 10th floor)
3. Participants (honorific titles omitted)
(1) Committee member of the Radio Regulatory Council
  Mitsutoshi TOBA (Chairman), Takeo IGUCHI (Deputy Chairman), Junichi HAMADA, Kashiko ODATE, Hatsuko UKIGAWA
(2) Hearing examiner of the Radio Regulatory Council
  Shuichi NISHIMOTO
(3) Secretary
  Kazuyuki MITSUI (Assistant Director of the General Affairs Division, Telecommunications Bureau)
(4) Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
  MORI, Director General of the Telecommunications Bureau
KAWACHI, Director General of the Radio Department and others

4. Contents of proceedings
(1) Concerning a ministerial ordinance plan to amend a section of the Radio Equipment Regulations and the Regulations Concerning Technical Regulations Conformity Certification of Specified Radio Equipment
(Inquiry No. 1)
A participant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications explained this matter in connection with inquiry No.2 since inquiry No. 1 was related to inquiry No. 2.
(2) Concerning a partial change of the frequency allocation plan
(Inquiry No. 2)
A participant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications explained this matter in connection with inquiry No.1 since inquiry No. 2 was related to inquiry No. 1.

Meanwhile, in relation inquiry No. 1, a hearing of opinions is obligatory pursuant to Article 99.12 paragraph 1 of the Radio Law, and as this concerned inquiry No. 2, it was deemed appropriate to hold a hearing of opinions together with that for inquiry No. 1, and it was decided to hold a hearing of opinions for inquiry No. 1 and inquiry No. 2 together. Shuichi NISHIMOTO was designated as a hearing examiner presiding over the procedure for the opinion hearing.
a. Explanation by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
The content of this matter is the introduction of a third-generation cellular phone (3G) and an entrance line for 3G in accordance with the reorganization of frequencies within the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band.

The background of the inquiry is that since 3G service started in October 2001, the number of subscribers has exceeded 60,000,000 as of November 2006, and the transition of cellular phones from a second-generation cellular phone (2G) to a third-generation cellular phone (3G) is rapidly advancing. Concerning the frequencies for 3G, TDD-method frequencies in 1.7 GHzgigahertz and 2 GHzgigahertz bands were allocated in 2005 in addition to the frequencies in the 2 GHzgigahertz band and frequencies in the 800 MHzmegahertz band which are under reorganization, allowing new cellular-phone manufacturers to enter the 3G business.

However, since transition from 2G to 3G is proceeding at the high pace of more than 1,500,000 phones per month, and the traffic of 3G data communications is larger than that of 2G, it is necessary to study the new allocation of 3G frequencies so as to meet the increasing demand for 3G frequencies. Thus, it was decided that frequencies in the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band which are currently used for G2 or privately-operated radio at present should be reorganized and allocated to 3G. We received from the Telecommunications Council a response concerning technical conditions for making effective use of frequencies in the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band in December 2006.

Meanwhile, since 1.5 GHzgigahertz band is the band planned in IMT-2000, cellular-phone manufacturers are supposed to use the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band supplementarily as a countermeasure against frequency restrictions in main city areas by combining frequencies in the 2 GHzgigahertz band with other frequencies. Combining frequencies in the 2 GHzgigahertz band and other frequencies also makes international roaming possible.

On the other hand, since the demand for the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band is deemed to be small in areas other than big cities, it has been decided to introduce an entrance line for cellular phones based on radio in rural areas where it is difficult to lay down optical fiber lines.

Concerning the reorganization scenario, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank Mobile have currently introduced a 2G system in the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band, and the MCA (Multi Channel Access System) is also utilizing these frequencies. The expiry date of September 2007 has already been decided for the band used by the MCA analog system among the bands of the said frequencies.

As a first step to reorganization, KDDI will stop using 2G frequencies in March 2008, and NTT DoCoMo will stop using 2g frequencies in October 2008. Both corporations will introduce a 3G system in these empty bands. Softbank Mobile has 10,000,000 subscribers for 2G at present, and they say it is not until March 2010 that they will be able to totally halt the use of 2G frequencies. After these two steps for reorganization, 3G frequencies in the 25 MHzmegahertz band will be able to be used all over the country. We will study how 3G frequencies which are newly created as a result of the reorganization should be used while maintaining progress in technical development. We also with to establish a license policy during 2007.

In relation to the frequency bands which remain a subject for continual study, we will study the use of such frequency bands while maintaining progress in MCA technology. The frequency band for the present MCA digital system will be transferred to a higher frequency band, and the scenario of expanding 3G frequencies and the like will be studied. By so doing, we want to form a conclusion about the use of such frequency bands as soon as possible.

Next, we will look at the technical conditions for a radio system to be introduced into the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band. The technical conditions for a 3G system will be such that the same specification as that for FDD-method 3G will be employed as is in the system introduced in the current 2 GHzgigahertz band, etc. In addition, necessary measures such as selecting an installation site and adding a filter will be taken so as not to interfere in other radio stations such as MCA digital relay stations.

A 3G non-regeneration type entrance line covers rural areas far away from the cellular phone base stations by placing a relay that connects the rural area and base station through radio waves. We plan to introduce a 3G non-regeneration type entrance line which directly relays 3G CDMA waves without changing the baseband signal. While the transmission capacity of this entrance line is comparatively low, directivity is achieved by increasing the transmission distance. There are high expectations for its use in remote areas such as underpopulated areas and isolated islands. Meanwhile, since there is the problem of adjusting the interference in 3G base stations to allow introduction to urban areas, it is deemed appropriate that the licensee of the 3G base station should be the same as the licensee of the relay.

Furthermore, we would like to establish systems other than 1.5 GHzgigahertz-band radio systems. In regard to technical conditions for 3G (TDD-method) in the 2 GHzgigahertz band, in addition to the 5 MHzmegahertz system which has already been institutionalized, we will add a 10 MHzmegahertz system with a large chip rate in accordance with current trends in international standards. In regard to the regeneration-type entrance line in the 22 GHzgigahertz band, since it cannot be used for a large-capacity system, the introduction of a multi-level modulation method called 64QAM and increasing the channel width will allow the faster transmission rate of up to 156 bps to be implemented.

The outline of the amendment of the ministerial ordinance is that the Radio Equipment Regulations will be amended in order to take the response of the Telecommunications Council into consideration. Technical standards concerning each radio system will be established, and the Ordinance Concerning Technical Regulations Conformity Certification of Specified Radio Equipment will be amended in such a way that radio equipment for the 1.5 GHzgigahertz-band non-regeneration entrance line will be added to specified radio equipment which is the target of technical regulations conformity certification.

A partial change to the frequency allocation plan is to set, in relation to specific frequencies in the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band, an expiry date for the use of 2G frequencies and a commencement date for introducing 3G frequencies.

Firstly, the expiry date for using the frequency allocated to KDDI for 2G will be set to 31 March, 2008, and will allow KDDI to use this as a 3G frequency from 1 April, 2008. At that time, there may be a slight adjustment in the allocated frequency. This is because since it is very effective in terms of the efficient use of frequencies to allocate 3G frequencies by using 5 MHzmegahertz as one unit, it is beneficial to shift 3G frequencies so that they are split in every 5 MHzmegahertz interval from the end of MCA digital in future.

Secondly, the expiry date to remove the 2G frequencies of NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile positioned in the range of 1,460 to 1,470 MHzmegahertz in the Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka band will be set to 30 April, 2008.

Thirdly, the expiry date of the remaining bands that NTT DoCoMo is using will be set to 30 September, 2008, and the released bands will be made usable for 3G on or after 1 October, 2008.

Finally, the expiry date of the remaining bands that Softbank Mobile is using will be set to 31 March, 2010, and the released bands will be made usable for 3G on or after 1 April, 2010.
b. Main questions and answers
- Question: How will the frequency transition be implemented for the handsets that are actually using these frequencies at present?
MIC answer: NTT DoCoMo, for example, uses frequencies in both the 800 MHzmegahertz and 1.5 GHzgigahertz bands. Even if the frequency within the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band stops, a frequency in the 800 MHzmegahertz band can be continuously used, meaning that handsets will be usable up until about 2012. On the other hand, since Softbank Mobile uses only the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band, Softbank Mobile must stop its 2G service no later than March 2010. This means that Softbank Mobile will eventually have to announce its transition from 2G to 3G to its customers in advance and go through a procedure for releasing the frequency.
- Question: Do you have any plan of preparing an additional band for 3G in order to avoid inconvenience to customers and corporations? (asked in connection with the above question)
MIC answer: Softbank Mobile uses the 2 GHzgigahertz band as its basic band. The Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka band of 1.7 GHzgigahertz band was prepared as a countermeasure against frequency restrictions in 2005 and was allocated to cellular-phone manufacturers who were short of spectrum. Furthermore, the 1.5 GHzgigahertz band which will be newly created will be allocated preferentially to cellular-phone manufacturers who are short of spectrum.
(3) Other matters
Concerning the introduction of a high-speed wireless LAN, the outline of technical conditions for a broadband mobile radio access system using the 2.5 GHzgigahertz band and the outline of a FY2007 information communications-related budget (draft), a report was provided by members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
(Responsibility for the wording: Secretariat of the Radio Regulatory Council)