April 4, 2023 Results of Solicitation for Opinions on Draft Ministerial Ordinance and Pertinent Conditions for Partial Amendments to Regulations for Procedures for Obtaining a Radio Station License

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has drafted a ministerial ordinance partially revising the Regulations for Procedures for Obtaining a Radio Station License. MIC also drafted an official directive partially revising the Examination Standards related to the Radio Act to relax some requirements when a mobile phone is used over the air on an unmanned aerial vehicle, etc. These amendments are based on a partial report issued by the Information and Communications Council. In this connection, MIC solicited opinions from Wednesday, February 15, through Thursday, March 16, 2023. As a result, five opinions were submitted, and MIC has decided to release the submitted opinions to the public along with MIC’s views on them. MIC will promptly revise the ministerial ordinances, etc., based on the results of the solicitation for opinions.

1. Background

Due to the recent expansion of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), there is a growing demand for mobile phones to be mounted on drones to control them, transmit images and data, and perform other functions. In addition, there are new needs for using mobile phones in helicopters for emergency and disaster response, as well as for 5G applications. As a result, there is a growing need to expand the technical requirements for using mobile phones in the sky.

In light of this situation, the Information and Communications Council has been studying the expansion of technical requirements for the aerial use of mobile phones. On January 24, 2023, the Council received a partial report on technical requirements for LTE-Advanced (FDD) and other technologies to expand the aerial use of mobile phones within the technical requirements for new-generation mobile communication systems.

Considering the above, MIC drafted a ministerial ordinance to partially revise the Regulations for Procedures for Obtaining a Radio Station License and an official directive to partially revise the Examination Standards related to the Radio Act. These amendments will allow mobile land stations for mobile radio communications to use the FDD-LTE system at an altitude of 150 m or higher and the FDD-NR system over the air. Opinions on the amendments were solicited from Wednesday, February 15, through Thursday, March 16, 2023.

2. Future plans

MIC will promptly revise the ministerial ordinances, etc., based on the results of the solicitation for opinions.

*The published material is in Japanese only.