March 2, 2021 Appeal for Opinions on Draft of Substitutability Verification based on Guidelines for Verification of Wholesale Charges for Designated Equipment Wholesale Services

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) will make an appeal for opinions from Wednesday, March 3 through Friday, April 2, 2021, on a draft of substitutability verification based on the Guidelines for Verification of Wholesale Charges for Designated Equipment Wholesale Services.

1. Background

MIC has been verifying the voice transmission services (hereafter referred to as “mobile voice wholesale”) provided through category II designated telecommunications facilities established by telecommunications carriers (hereafter referred to as “category II designated carriers”) for the telecommunications services of other telecommunications carriers. This verification has been made according to the Guidelines for Verification of Wholesale Charges for Designated Equipment Wholesale Services (announced by a press release of September 25, 2020, hereafter referred to as the “Guidelines”), with consideration of the fourth report of the Study Group on Calculation of Interconnection Charges.
Recently, respective category II designated carriers as the subject of verification have reported that an interconnection function has been implemented as an alternative to mobile voice wholesale. Therefore, based on the Guidelines, MIC decided to verify substitutability by interconnection (Step 1) again. In this connection, MIC drafted the verification based on the discussions of the Study Group on Calculation of Interconnection Charges. Accordingly, MIC has decided to make this appeal for opinions on the draft.

2. Appeal for opinions

1. Subject

Draft of Substitutability Verification based on Guidelines for Verification of Wholesale Charges for Designated Equipment Wholesale Services

2. Submission period

From Wednesday, March 3 and no later than Friday, April 2, 2021

3. Future plans

With consideration of the result of the appeal for opinions, MIC will finalize the result of verification.