Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to formulate guidelines for SIM unlocking of mobile phones in June

In response to the "SIM Lock" release request from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications at the "Public hearings on the way of SIM lock of mobile phone terminals" held at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on April 2,NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SOFTBANK MOBILE, e-Mobile, Inc. agreed to "respond if requested by the user"However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications started to move toward realization.

The guideline for SIM unlocking is said to be formulated in June.

Details are as below.
Guidelines for unlocking mobile SIM, formulated at the end of June Haraguchi Minister, Minister of Public Management Affairs at the Cabinet meeting afterwards policy - SankeiBiz (Sankei Biz)

SIM unlock guidelines, created by the end of June: Economic News: Money · Economy: YOMIURI ONLINE (Yomiuri Shimbun)

According to reports by Sankei Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun, according to the interview after the Cabinet meeting this morning, General Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi issued guidelines (guidelines) containing the way of releasing "SIM lock" at the end of June It seems to have presented an idea to formulate.

By canceling the SIM lock, except for cases where communication methods and mobile phone companies with different frequency bands are used, the user can change one SIM card at one mobile phone company only by replacing the SIM card It will be available. Therefore, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications has said that the entry of mobile operators will accelerate as a result of SIM unlocking, which will lead to lower communication charges and strengthening competitiveness of related companies.

As an advantage of SIM unlocking, it can be said that the iPhone which SOFTBANK MOBILE offers monopolistically in Japan can be used by NTT docomo etc. However, SOFTBANK MOBILE has adopted " It leads to confusion "and so on.

From KDDI "Unless the business model of the mobile phone market in Japan changes, canceling SIM lock will not benefit"There is also pointed out, Haraguchi General Affairs Minister stated that" It is not appropriate to cancel the business model at the request of the user to the last, "not to force business models to each company" at the press conference " doing.

By the way, NTT DoCoMo and EMOBILE are said not to object to the policy of the ministry concerning the cancellation of the SIM lock, but are they to agree with that?

Also, as the communication method is different at present, even if SIM lock is released, the user moves between NTT DoCoMo or SoftBank Mobile which adopts W-CDMA as the communication method and au which adopts cdma 2000 I can not do it.

However, if a manufacturer wishing to develop in a way not to be bound by the intention of the carrier in the future can use both W-CDMA and cdma2000, it also corresponds to the frequency band of all Japanese mobile phone companies, so to speak, "If you develop a mobile phone terminal that removes the barriers between the two, the situation may change a lot.