On October 21, 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications held a new expert panel, "Study Group on New Mobile Phone Frequency Allocation Method". As the name suggests, this is a study on how to allocate radio wave licenses for mobile phones, but specifically, the introduction of a "frequency auction" seems to be the biggest theme.
In the first place, what is a frequency auction? It has already been introduced in many countries and regions overseas, and in 2020, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson of Stanford University in the United States, who devised the theory of frequency auctions, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Also known as
Frequency auctions were originally created to simplify the administrative review process. In extreme terms, the auction format is a system in which the company that pays the most can obtain a better frequency band license, so the examination does not take much time and effort, and the process is highly transparent, so troubles and lawsuits can occur over the examination. is also less likely to occur.
And one more thing, the successful bid cost at the auction will be paid to the country. Therefore, it is certain that the adoption of frequency auctions will be a great advantage for the government to secure a large new financial resource.
However, on the other hand, the frequency auction is also a system with many disadvantages for mobile phone companies. The biggest disadvantage is that it costs a lot of money to make a successful bid. According to the materials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the total amount of successful bids in recent cases in foreign countries is about tens of billions to hundreds of billions of yen, so you can understand that the impact on business is by no means small.
In addition, since money has an important meaning, it is easy for companies with a lot of money to buy up frequency licenses and gain an overwhelming advantage. Especially for small businesses, the auction system tends to work against them.
In the 3G era, when frequency auctions were just beginning to be introduced, the successful bid prices soared across the board due to high expectations for 3G. As a result, the management of mobile phone companies in Europe became difficult and a series of reorganizations occurred, and many problems were occurring, such as significant delays in the development of 3G and 4G. Currently, it seems that the mechanism has been devised so that such a surge does not occur, but it is certain that the expenditure for mobile phone companies will increase significantly, which is due to delays in network development and soaring communication traffic. , there is also concern that it will lead to disadvantages for consumers.
Frequency auctions, which have such merits and demerits, are spreading all over the world, but they have never been adopted in Japan. Therefore, even now, when examining mobile phone licenses, there are still questions about how much area can be covered by when, looking at each company's opening plans, whether frequencies are tight, and whether recently they are promoting the use of MVNOs... … and so on, the conventional comparative screening method is used to determine allocation by screening various items.
However, looking back on the past, it is not that the introduction of frequency auctions has not been considered, and the discussion has repeatedly emerged and disappeared several times. Especially in 2011, when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications held an expert panel called the "Frequency Auction Advisory Panel" to discuss specifics regarding the introduction of a frequency auction system.
As a result, in 2012, a radio wave revision bill was submitted to the Diet to introduce a frequency auction. It came to the point where it was just about to be introduced, but it has not been introduced until now, probably because the Diet was dissolved and the government was transferred to the Liberal Democratic Party.
So, why is the movement to introduce frequency auctions reignited even though there has been no change since the Liberal Democratic Party administration? The Radio Law has a great influence. In response to the significant increase in the economic value of radio waves due to the expansion of 5G and IoT, the revised Radio Law calls for changes in the system for allocating frequencies. The establishment of provisions concerning the allocation procedure for
This is to allow operators who apply for license allocation of new frequencies such as 5G to apply for the "economic value of the frequency" and add the evaluation value to the conventional examination items. As a result of the examination, the business operators who were assigned a license will pay the proposed amount (specified base station establishment fee) to the national treasury, and the specified base station establishment fee will be used for the realization of "Society 5.0" proposed by the government. increase.
As far as the content is concerned, it seems that the government is aiming to introduce a frequency auction as part of the comparative examination, rather than introducing it all-out, in order to achieve a soft landing. . In fact, in the license allocation review for the 1.7 GHz band outside Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, which was implemented in 2021 and assigned to Rakuten Mobile, the specific base station establishment fee was actually included in the comparative review items.
However, even after that, there seems to be increasing calls from the administrative side for the full-scale introduction of the frequency auction system, and in September 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Young Reform Proposal Team announced a reduction, "transparency regarding radio allocation." It is also important to further increase the quality and economic value of the products,” and there was an opinion that the merits of the auction method should be incorporated and their effects should be verified.
For this reason, I think that future expert meetings will be very interested in how the frequency auction will be incorporated into the actual examination, while considering the environment in Japan. The first examination will be conducted by March 2022, and the second examination will be conducted by July 2022, so it seems that a certain conclusion will be reached around the summer of next year.
At the first meeting, various opinions were expressed by the experts, but in advancing this discussion, I would like the author to emphasize the perspective of enhancing the global competitiveness of the Japanese mobile phone industry. I'm here. Considering that the presence of Japanese telecommunications equipment vendors and terminal manufacturers in the global market is almost non-existent, the presence of mobile phone companies is extremely important in increasing competitiveness, but the recent trends of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Looking at it, I am very concerned about the excessive pursuit of fair competition and the fact that policies that reduce the competitiveness of mobile phone companies are being used to a greater extent.
As I mentioned earlier, there are actually cases where the competitiveness of mobile phone companies has declined due to the introduction of frequency auctions overseas. can lead to the loss of From the standpoint of industrial development, instead of proceeding with discussions based on the idea that "it is natural overseas, so it is natural to introduce it in Japan", we should consider the current situation surrounding Japan and consider how to implement the auction system in line with reality. It is the author's idea that it is necessary to take the attitude of dropping the