NTT Docomo to introduce price decrease, flat-rate voice, VoLTE from June?

There is no official statement from NTT Docomo about this. The story originated in the old fashioned print newspapers (as so many important stories do).

There are three particular facets to the rumored changes:

• A flat rate voice calling plan that includes all mobile and landlines for ¥2,700
• Total cost of LTE data and flat-rate voice of ¥5,900 (now it is about ¥8,000)
• A shared family data plan of 10GB for ¥10,000.

The current voice plan for Docomo LTE (Xi) contracts gives unlimited calling to other Docomo subscribers for about ¥2,000 per month (Talk 24 + base fee with 2-year contract). The out of network cost is HIGH: ¥42/minute (billed in 30 second intervals). This is so high, that over the nearly 30 months that I've had a Docomo Xi contract, I've placed an out-of-network call exactly ZERO times. I'll find a phone booth or fire up my SIP client and route the call through my United States VoIP provider before I'll pay that price.

Effects throughout industry (if true)

Of course the KDDI and Softbank would introduce completing plans. This is not an attempt to bring in new customers to Docomo, but the opposite – slow the flow of existing ones out.

This would also likely be good news for MVNO users. A bug in the Nexus 5 prevented it from working with 3G contracts, which forced many users of low-priced b-mobile SIMs to switch to LTE plans. While the wholesale pricing of 3G contracts allows for the inclusion of "free" minutes, this isn't the case with the pricing on LTE contracts – all calls cost ¥42/minute.

What makes this most ironic is that even with an LTE contract, calls are routed over 3G anyway because...

Voice over LTE

All Japanese carriers are planning on introducing Voice over LTE (VoLTE). There hasn't yet been a lot of talk about this, though. When it does come, it is expected to result in less expensive voice plans. Tsuda Hiromu at Engadget JP raises the possibility that this pricing is in anticipation of VoLTE introduction.

When you stop and think about it, that makes the most sense.

It's hard to see Docomo doing this if calls are still routed over 3G. So I guess this means we could see VoLTE from Docomo in June. If this does indeed signal the introduction of VoLTE in Japan, it would mean that KDDI and Softbank would be limited on their ability to compete on voice price until they too introduce VoLTE. This in turn means we'll probably be seeing more dumb promotions and unsustainable cash back offers from them until they get up to speed technology wise.

NTT Docomo postpones the release of a Tizen phone

In this case, it's probably more like how a doctor "delays" administering treatment to a terminally ill patient while doing triage and gives morphine instead to ease the pain.

When plans for a Tizen phone were first announced, we were skeptical of the chances for success and of docomo's motives for release. At the time, the only consideration was Android and how it greatly hindered the carrier's abilities to charge money for things like putting a song on your phone or a new ringtone. Now that docomo has the iPhone, I really don't see Tizen in the picture. Making their services compatible also would have required a lot of resources, leaving little left for Tizen.

As data-based, alternate communication forms (Skype, Line, VoIP, hangouts) continue to eat into profits from voice calls, docomo is still looking for a way to increase revenue from premium content and related services because they are shifting 10% of their workforce, or roughly 2000 people to content and e-commerce.

For now, Tizen is not going to be their solution, which is probably a good thing.

Kanagawa Police recapture escaped suspect using phone location data

On January 7, Sugimoto Yuta bolted from a sixth floor, unsecured interrogation room at a Kawasaki police station while under arrest for suspicion of robbery and gang rape. He was unguarded and meeting with a lawyer at the time. He was recaptured 46 hours later in a Yokohama Park along the Tokaido Main Line, approximately 20 kilometers from the police station.

Sugimoto was spotted on a security camera getting in two a car with two of his friends. The police later determined that Sugimoto had borrowed a cell phone from one of the two. The police then tracked that phone with location data provided from the carrier to the vicinity of Izumi and Seya Wards in Yokohama, where they eventually located Sugimoto in a wooded park.

The mobile carrier and phone type was not reported. The phone was referred to as a keitai denwa (携帯電話) which could technically be used to refer to either a smartphone or a feature phone, but is generally these days used to describe feature phones. Based on the imprecise location data, it would seem that the police had only cell tower triangulation available. (Alternatively, they could have tracked the phone precisely to a number of locations within those two wards.)

Japanese mobile carriers do collect precise location data on customers using GPS. You may recall the animations that were produced by from NTT Docomo data of the exodus, primarily on foot, of people from Tokyo following the 3/11 Earthquake. Unfortunately the videos are no longer publicly available.

You also may recall that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police recently began pushing for ID verification for data-only SIM cards that are provided by MVNOs. These prepaid data SIMs have sufficient bandwith to support VoIP and SIP clients, so they can be used for voice communications. This recent case will likely be used as an example of why ID registration requirements should be expanded to data SIMs, without which, the police would be unable to track a person based on their mobile device.

Japan Communications to bring landline numbers to Japanese mobile phones

Frank Sanda, general telecom disrupter and founder and CEO of Japan Communications Inc., the provider of b-mobile products, recently announced on twitter that they are "about bring Tokyo landline numbers to mobile phones". That is, you could have a 03-xxxx-xxxx phone number attached to your smartphone. This will make your mobile number indistinguishable at a glance from a normal landline phone and will allow people to call you for a fraction of the cost they would incur if they called your mobile number.

He also said that the goal for JCI this next year is to move in the same revenue class (trillion yen) as NTT East and NTT West, and he thinks this "03 Smartphone" will do just that. And he also thinks the NTTs are going to need some help from someone, somewhere.

As far as I can see, the way this is going to happen is using VoIP ("IP softphone") with a "Class A" LTE connection. If so, not only will calling in be cheaper, so will calling out. Docomo charges ¥42 per minute to place an out-of-network call from an LTE phone. Doing the same with VoIP costs one tenth of that price, and if the connection is good, (I'll come back to that later) the voice quality is loads better due to the use of higher-quality codecs.

A bit of background:

Phone Numbers in Japan

In Japan, prefixes are typically reserved for particular types of devices. Mobile phones are allocated numbers beginning with 090, 080, and (recently), 070. Because incoming calls are charged to the caller, calling a mobile phone can be quite expensive. A commonly available option is an iP (VoIP) softphone app for your smartphone that is attached to a 050 number. However, the incoming calls to a 050 number can still incur a premium charge, above the cost of a standard local call. So, the best would be to have a normal number attached to your cellphone, for example a “03” Tokyo prefix.

Using a SIP client with a purchased 03 DID allows this right now, which is similar to what many of us do to get a phone number from “back home”. (I used to use callwithus, but now have a free DID from callcentric at which I point my Google Voice number.) While this is easy and straightforward in most countries, it is a bit more complicated here in Japan (though not impossible).

Quality of Service

Part of the reason why you can’t just get a prepackaged VoIP plan for your mobile phone with a 03 number is because there are minimum requirements before particular prefixes may be allocated. For a standard landline (固定電話) number to be allocated to a VoIP provider, the line must be CLASS A, capable of an R-factor greater than 80 for 95% of the time with less than 100 ms latency (according to wikipedia). A Class B (>70 and <150 ms) line may only be allocated to a 050 number.

A Caveat

LTE is technically Class A and could qualify for a standard landline number allocation.

Technically.

Realistically, I’m a bit skeptical how well this will work out. At peak times, the carriers are beyond capacity. I think the 95% of the time R factor requirement might be hard to meet. NTT East and West, as well as NTT Docomo and NTT Communications - hell, all the NTTs - are going to fight this. I’m sure all but Docomo will use the same argument that LTE doesn’t yet qualify as Class A. On top of this, you have inconsistent behavior with VoIP apps across different smartphones, as well as potential concerns with battery.

b-mobile "Free Data" SIM will lower cost of voice+data plans

Update: on sale now here: http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/fd/index.html.

Here are the details from b-mobile (which also describes their 3G voice-only SIM for feature phones) This will become my new recommended data plan for unlocked smartphones (not tablets) if you don't want to (or can't) hack your phone to fix the infamous signal bars and cell standby android bug. (yes, I call it a bug).

A modest price decrease on the low-speed data plan

The current low-cost LTE voice and data "smartphone" SIM from b-mobile runs about ¥2,000 per month for unlimited 150 kbps data. As with all Docomo LTE SIMs, there is no included call allowance. From November 23rd, the new plan will lower this to about ¥1,600 (1,560+tax). while increasing data speed to 200 kbps.

With the upcoming consumption tax increase, currently planned for several stages, b-mobile is no longer displaying prices with tax included. Be sure to confirm if prices include tax or not. Until now, almost all mobile-related prices were quoted with tax included.

This is about a ¥400 yen discount each month for an extra coffee at スタバ or a couple of mint crunkies (if they still exist). The change in data speed is insignificant – All of the low speed plans under about 400 kbps are really hard to use for anything other mail and chat. This SIM does support turbo charge options of 100 and 500 MB, good over 90 days, for ¥300 and ¥1,200.

The real savings

The price of the add-on, high-speed data plan has been roughly cut in half, from just under ¥3,000 to just over ¥1,500. Not only that, the new plan adds an additional gig of data for a total of 3GB per month. Previously, adding the larger data quota to the smartphone SIM would cost over ¥4,000/month. Now you can get a voice-capable SIM card with 3 GB of monthly, high-speed data, for only ¥3,120+tax.

Avoid the cell standby bug

Anyone who's been paying attention to the MVNO scene in Japan is well aware of Android's poor handling of Docomo data-only SIMs. A phone with one of these SIMs doesn't display signal bars, and the cell standby process kills the battery in a matter of hours. The fix requires rooting your phone and voiding the warranty.

People who didn't want to or couldn't do that had no choice but to buy a voice SIM.

Now, with the new price on the smartphone voice SIM with 3GB of data being at ¥3,120+tax, you can basically think of this as a data SIM with voice for free. The original prepaid 1 GB Flat Rate SIM, which is still available, cost ¥3,100/month (after the first month). For nearly the same monthly cost, you now get three times the data and won't have to void your warranty to make your phone work properly.

You could actually use this as a regular phone SIM, and make cellular calls, but the rate is not cheap and there is not in-network calling with MVNOs. None of the MVNOs have any room to get creative with voice plans due to Docomo's wholesale pricing. There are no packages offered, not even for Docomo subscribers. ¥40/minute is what you pay for voice with a Xi (LTE) plan and a docomo SIM. The FOMA (3G) plans are packaged such that MVNOs can include a free calling allowance, which is ironic as hell since VoLTE does not yet exist, so all voice calls, even with an LTE SIM, get routed over 3G.

It would be much less expensive to use VoIP or some sort of chat option for placing calls.

Plan details

• LTE
• Post paid (credit card)
• Limited to residents of Japan
• ¥3,000+tax upfront
• ¥1,560+tax base cost for 200 kbps unlimited data
• ¥1,560+tax additional (¥3,120 total) for 3GB of high-speed data
• Turbo charge (100 and 500 MB for ¥300 and ¥1,200)
• Calls: ¥20/30 seconds
• Normal, micro, and nano SIMs available

070 prefix phone numbers for 3G+ phones

Starting November 1st, 2013, Japanese phone numbers beginning with "070" will be available for use with 3G, LTE, and 4G cellular phones.

070 is not a new prefix for Japanese cellular phones. It's actually an old prefix: it was (and still is) used for Japan's last remaining 2G cellular network, called "PHS" in Japanese.

However, with PHS usage in decline and 3G/LTE/4G phone numbers in the 080 and 090 space being rapidly depleted, they have opened up parts of the 070 prefix for non-2G/non-PHS use:

• If the first digit after the 070 is a five or six (ex. 070-5XXX-XXXX or 070-6YYY-YYYY), it is still a Japanese PHS number
• All other number combinations could be either a PHS number or a 3G (or more advanced protocol) number

One interesting interoperability issue: because PHS 2G is not compatible with worldwide 2G GSM, they cannot send or receive SMS text messages.

That's how Japan's mobile email system got started: it was invented as an alternative to SMS.

From a consumer's standpoint, Japan's mobile mail alternative to SMS was superior: it allowed very long messages, it could interoperate and send/receive from internet email addresses, and allowed for rich content much like HTML mail.

From a carrier's commercial viewpoint, mobile email was a blessing because carrier provided email addresses, unlike phone numbers, could not to transferred to rival's networks (via MNP procedures), locking in customer loyalty; subscribers are hesitant to defect to other carriers because they would have to change/lose their Japanese carrier mobile mail email address.

It is only a recent phenomenon were people in Japan have begun to use SMS, although usage lags compared to carrier email. This is because of a few factors:

• It is only recently that the government MIC mandated that carrier's SMS interoperate (send/receive SMS text messages between Japanese and international carriers)
• Japanese 3G phones often had the SMS/MMS functionality buried in a deep submenu and referred to by strange brand names ("C-Mail" for KDDI/au SMS and "S!Mail" for Softbank MMS). Foreign phone operating systems, such as Android and iPhone, tend to feature the SMS/MMS features more prominently in their user interfaces. As Android and iPhone became popular in Japan, awareness of this functionality increased.
• When the restrictions were lifted for SMS/MMS interoperability, internet services (both in Japan and overseas) started increasing the use of SMS as a verification method for Japanese customers.

Thus, sending SMS/MMS messages used to never work if sent to a 070 number. Now, people will need to know if the the 070 phone is PHS or not if they want to send an SMS.

PHS' popularity amongst the general public in Japan has dropped precipitously now that 3G is ubiquitous and even faster phones (LTE/4G) are available everywhere. However, there is one area where PHS is still used: corporations still use them for internal "employee assigned" phones as they're very cheap to buy and use in bulk with a corporate contract. They tend to be used as pagers, either connected to humans or machines.

When 3G was introduced, they first exclusively assigned the 080 prefix to the devices. They then eventually added the 090 prefix. During this time when 3G was new, some people were surprised to hear people tell them that their mobile number was "080", thinking that only "070" numbers were mobile numbers. Now, with the younger generation, some people may express surprise that somebody has a "070" number, as younger people associate the 070 prefix with old technology.

The reason Japan Mobile Tech has no information on rental phones and SIMs

We often get questions about voice SIMs for visitors; this post will serve as the answer.

National law restricts mobile voice plans to residents of Japan. The only way for a visitor to get mobile voice service is to use a rental phone or SIM card. SIM cards can be complicated by the fact that many overseas Android smartphones don't display the required certification mark (giteki 技適) for radio transmitting devices, making them (technically) illegal to use in Japan.

The reason that we don't have any posts or information on rental is because we consider it to be a total waste of money and can't recommend rentals whatsoever.

The average visitor to Japan simply does not need traditional cellular voice, and if you do for some sort of serious business, then you are not the average visitor. You may rely on a voice plan back home, but in Japan, we rely on mail much more than voice - many people almost exclusively. Don't annoy the locals by actually calling them – be cool and send an email ;)

EVERYONE you would contact in Japan can receive your mail. I don't mean SMS, I mean regular email. If you need to call back home, use skype or Google Hangouts or some other VoIP-based solution with free wifi (yes, Japan actually has that now at Starbuck, 7-11 and I think even some vending machines) or a data-only mobile plan because these carry no legal restrictions requiring residency.

We recommend the JCI b-mobile visitor SIMs, which can be picked up at the airport, for data connectivity that is a balance between value and ease of set up. If you want the absolute best deal, get a pre-paid b-mobile SIM from a large electronics retailer for about ¥3,000 for 30 days. These are a better value but require activation with a Japanese mobile phone.

Regarding the lack of certification mark on overseas phones, note the usage of the word technically above. You'll need a phone that support UMTS-2100 MHz (Band 1).