For the enforcement of the revised Telecommunications Business Law, each mobile phone company has been preparing a system for the mobile industry. At the "Study Group on Mobile Phones", the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications presented a draft ministerial ordinance concerning a complete separation plan for mobile phone services and restrictions on the period of line contracts. The draft ministerial ordinance is to determine detailed supplements to the Telecommunications Business Law that will be enforced, but an unexpected proposal popped up here. That is the plan to limit the contract cancellation fee, the so-called "penalty", to 1,000 yen for contracts with a fixed term.
This proposal proposes that contracts with a binding term should be within two years at the longest, and that the upper limit of the penalty for early termination is up to 1000 yen. At the same time, when comparing plans with and without time restrictions, the difference in monthly usage fees is said to be 170 yen per month. By the way, in the current price plans of each company, if you cancel a contract with a fixed period in the middle, you will be charged 9500 yen as a contract cancellation fee. The difference in the monthly usage fee depending on whether or not there is a time limit is 1500 yen for NTT Docomo's Gigalight and au's new au Pitatto Plan.
Regarding the reason for this 1,000 yen penalty, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Billing Service Division responded to a questionnaire conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that ``If the penalty is 1,000 yen, I will change mobile phone companies.''8 It is said that it was proposed as the upper limit of the penalty because it accounted for the percentage. The contents of the questionnaire will be published later. It seems that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications thought it was an appropriate proposal, but at the meeting on the 11th, a committee member participating in the study group pointed out, "Is the questionnaire sufficient?" However, at the same time, it seems that there was also an opinion that "0 yen is fine".
In addition, the reason why the difference in the monthly usage fee with or without a period restriction is "170 yen is appropriate" is based on the contract cancellation fee of the current rate plan and the difference in the monthly usage fee with or without a period restriction. It was calculated. The formula is ``9500 yen ÷ 1500 yen = 6.3'' because the difference between the contract cancellation fee of 9500 yen in the current rate plan and the monthly usage fee is 1500 yen. calculated. Applying this to the proposed penalties of 1,000 yen resulted in a formula of '1,000 yen ÷ 6 months = 166.6'.
