Softbank Mobile to Offer New Fee Plan, Aiming to Increase Users
By Kyodo News International, Tokyo
Jan. 5–TOKYO — Softbank Mobile Corp. President Masayoshi Son said Friday that Japan’s third-largest mobile phone service operator will launch a new fee plan on Jan. 16 with a monthly base fee of 980 yen with the aim of securing a large number of users.
The base fee under the plan called “White Plan” is considerably lower than the cut-rate price of 2,880 yen offered under the “Gold Plan” which the company introduced last October.
Phone call and e-mail service charges will remain unchanged from the Gold Plan, but unlike with the Gold Plan there will be no “200-minutes free call a month” service for the nighttime period.
The new plan realizes a lower base fee by eliminating the 200-minutes free call service.
Son said the new plan should satisfy most users. For those who rarely make phone calls and had felt base fees are too expensive, the lower base fee will be preferable. For those who frequently make phone calls it will also be good because, in addition to the low base fee, the company will continue to provide free domestic calls between its users almost all day — except between 9 p.m. and 12:59 a.m.
“We may not be able to make a huge profit with this fee plan, but by increasing the number of users, we think we can do healthy business,” Son said.
Internet conglomerate Softbank Corp. acquired the Japanese mobile unit of Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC and renamed it Softbank Mobile last year. Softbank Mobile is now the third largest, following NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. which operates “au” services.
With the October introduction of the number portability system that allows about 100 million wireless handset users in Japan to keep their cell phone numbers even if they switch service operators, Japan’s mobile communication market has seen intensifying competition.
Under the new fee system, Softbank Mobile said domestic calls will cost 21 yen per 30 seconds when calling to non-Softbank users any time, and likewise for calls between Softbank users during the time from 9 p.m. to 12:59 a.m.
Softbank will start accepting orders from its users to switch to the new plan next Thursday.
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