Japanese government prompts changes for Sprint parent SoftBank
SoftBank is separating Sprint and its other foreign holdings from its Japanese businesses as it prepares for some major changes at home. This spring, the Japanese carrier is set to take steps to cut prices for some of its wireless customers and plans to start offering electricity through a partnership with Tokyo Electric.
Next month Japan is set to deregulate its electric power market. SoftBank has registered to become an electric company, and so have hundreds of smaller players. But SoftBank has an advantage in its existing relationship with millions of Japanese consumers. The company plans to bundle electricity with wireless service and offer a discount to customers who sign up for both, according to The Japan Times. Discounts are expected to be even steeper for customers who also use SoftBank’s fiber for Internet service.
Price cuts for wireless customers
While the Japanese government is deregulating electricity, it is getting more involved in cellular service. Last year, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said publicly he was concerned about how much consumers spend on their mobile phone bills and urged carriers to make changes.
Now Japan’s three nationwide carriers – SoftBank, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI – all have plans to cut data prices for at least some of their customers. SoftBank and KDDI are reportedly planning to offer 1 gigabyte of data per month for $25 and 1 GB plus voice calls for roughly $43. Prices will of course be higher for customers who want more data. NTT DoCoMo will take a different approach to price cuts by focusing on family plans, charging higher rates and offering more data.
SoftBank’s competition – NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo is Japan’s leading carrier by market share, and while the company has been less aggressive than SoftBank on the international front, it has been highly innovative in Japan. NTT DoCoMo recently rolled out biometric authentication to Apple iOS customers based on a cross-industry open standard called Fast Identity Online. The company is also moving quickly to address “Internet of Things” use cases. It was the first Japanese operator to say it has completed testing of a Category 1 LTE chip to connect IoT devices to its network. NTT DoCoMo certified the Sequans Caliope chipset, the same solution certified by Verizon Wireless in the U.S.
NTT DoCoMo also offers a public Wi-Fi network, which it markets to tourists and business travelers who pay by the week. The carrier also has a roaming partnership with Wi-Fi network provider Boingo.
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