May 15, 2020 Result of Appeal for Opinions on Draft Revision of Guidelines on Application of the Telecommunications Business Act and Radio Act related to MVNO and Release of Revised Guidelines

  The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) made an appeal for opinions from Wednesday, March 18 through Thursday, April 16, 2020, on a draft revision of the Guidelines on Application of the Telecommunications Business Act and Radio Act related to MVNO. As a result, seven opinions were submitted. Accordingly, MIC has decided to open the opinions submitted to the public, along with MIC’s view on them and the revised Guidelines.

1. Overview

MIC specifies the Guidelines on Application of the Telecommunications Business Act and Radio Act related to MVNO (hereafter referred to as the “MVNO Guidelines”) from the perspective of encouraging business operators to enter the market of mobile virtual network operators (MVNO). This market offers various services that utilize the wireless network of mobile network operators (MNO). MIC expects that the MVNO Guidelines will promote further competition in the field of mobile communications and benefit users through the provision of more diverse and cheaper services, while also ensuring the fair and efficient use of the radio spectrum.
Recently, MIC has revised the MVNO Guidelines to make the necessary upgrades elaborated in the final report of the Study Group on Competitive Environment of Mobile Market.

2. Result of appeal for opinions

MIC made an appeal for opinions from Wednesday, March 18 through Thursday, April 16, 2020, on the draft revision of the MVNO Guidelines, and received seven opinions.

3. Revised MVNO Guidelines

With consideration of the result of the appeal for opinions, MIC revised the MVNO Guidelines.
MIC will post reference information on the public comment page of the e-Gov https://www.e-gov.go.jp ).