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Operators Will Decide if They Want to Unlock Phones Says Government

Apr 29, ’10 7:24 PM
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That didn’t take long. And didn’t go that far.

After some heavy lobbying from interested parties in Japan, the government kinda backed down on its promise to unlock all handsets in Japan.

In the end, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will let operators decide if they want to unlock their phones or not, at least for the current generations of devices. Final plans of the regulations are expected for June.

The only obligation will be for the operators s to disclose which phones are unlocked in a clear way, in order to offer choice to the public.

The ministry explained its decision by saying it will allow for a test before the next generation of phone are released. The success, or lack thereof, could help it draft a more strict policy, this time possibly dictating a full unlock to the four carriers.
The absence of compatibility among certain networks was also advanced as an explanation on why a full unlock would not profit all customers.

With SoftBank having been voicing the most concerns about the prospect amongst the big four, it’s almost certain that the iPhone will remain locked for the foreseeable future (notwithstanding having its own dedicated SIM card).

  • Khurt

    I wonder how well national unlocking would go over here in the US? Our market is similar to Japan’s. We have CDMA and GSM technologies among multiple carriers.

  • william

    If the decision is left up to the operators, they really don’t have any incentive to unlock.
    Bummer, more long contracts and high cancellation fees to come.

  • http://mobileinjapan.com/2010/05/07/importing-mobile-equipment-in-japan/ Importing Mobile Equipment in Japan « Mobile in Japan

    [...] barrier is SIM locks. While there has been quite a bit of discussion lately in Japan on the subject, the fact is that now Japan is one of the most restrictive countries in the world when it comes to [...]

  • SBS

    I’m a little late to this party, but I’ve had several people recently give me the link to this article. Thanks for the information about a finalized plan coming in June.

    As for the government backing down on its promise to unlock all phones, I was unaware that MIC ever made such a promise. A yomiuri article (that cited no sources) posted on 3/28, before the April 2nd meeting, gave me the impression that there was never an intention to unlock current phones.

    This article already stated exactly what you did, that the current decision to unlock handsets will only apply to the next generation of phones to go on sale at the end of the year, and that current phones will be excluded.

    ２０１０年末から発売される次世代携帯電話の端末を対象とし、法制化による義務付けも検討する。

    現行の端末を使っている利用者は対象外とする。

    So, I don’t think it is necessarily appropriate to imply that something drastic has changed and MIC is backing off. It seems to me that everything is proceeding according to plan. But I’m not in the tech industry and just relying on what I read in the J-media.

  • Paul Papadimitriou

    It’s true that there were no promises, as the government doesn’t promise a lot anyway. There were talks in that direction though and the lobbying did play a part.

    Now, you can argue that the title of my post was a bit dramatic, yes ;-)

    Thanks for your reaction!

  • http://mobileinjapan.com/2010/07/07/japan-docomo-to-abandon-sim-lock-by-2011-really/ Japan DoCoMo To Abandon SIM Lock By 2011. Really? « Mobile in Japan

    [...] we’re talking about guidelines. Yup, guidelines, not regulation. If you fancy reading the preliminary ones in Japanese, [...]