Turning Japanese, I really think so
Rating: no place for complacency
By Annie Turner
Interesting, eh. The two mobile operators in the world’s most advanced mobile data market, (possibly with the exception of South Korea), NTT DoCoMo and KDDI are both lowering service fees in November in an attempt to gain competitive advantage in a saturated market.
DoCoMo is to start a new pricing plan on 26 November – the new monthly basic fee will be 1,680 yen (EUR 10.3/USD 14.3) cheaper than the current plan, according to Reuters.
KDDI also plans to cut its lowest monthly base fee next month – by 40% – but it intends to raise handset prices at the same time, in a bid to reduce the subsidies it pays to device vendors.
Regulators are pressuring Japan’s mobile operators to do away with subsidies that have allowed cutting-edge phones to be priced as low as 1 yen ( EUR 0.006/USD 0.01) and that have given operators huge power over phone design.
Yippee all round, except that subscribers are going to be less than impressed at having to pay a realistic amount for the handset having enjoyed such outrageous subsidies for so long. Consumers aren’t likely to know or care who bosses who about concerning device design. On the other hand, one of the principal planks of free, open market thinking and competition – liberalisation – is to remove, as much as possible, factors that artificially skew the market.
We’re on the regulators’ side and it’s good to see the lack of complacency in the market and that vested interest doesn’t appear to have a stranglehold on the authorities – as ever, many other countries could learn a lot from the Japanese.
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