IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/itse15/127152.html

Recent Development of Net Neutrality Conditions in Japan: Impact of Fiber Wholesale and Long-term Evolution (LTE)

Author

Listed:
  • Jitsuzumi, Toshiya

Abstract

The Japanese broadband market was very competitive until recently owing to the interconnection rules and the significant market power (SMP) regulations on the incumbent fixed telecom giant, NTT East/West. Japan’s regulator, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), could let the market dynamism deal with the net neutrality issue without introducing any “special” rules. However, technological developments in mobile broadband have turned mobile operators into leading players in the broadband ecosystem, which is making the broadband access market increasingly oligopolistic. The fiber wholesale recently introduced by NTT East/West may accelerate this trend by realizing the virtual integration of NTT Docomo and NTT East/West. Since mobile network operators are less disciplined in Japan’s telecom framework than fixed ones are, the MIC cannot sit back and do nothing. This paper compares two of the tools the MIC may use—increasing competitive pressure in the market and controlling the behavior of dominant mobile operators—and concludes that the latter is more promising. The author recommends that the MIC begin examining the re-regulation of mobile operators and the introduction of new rules for net neutrality.

Suggested Citation

  • Jitsuzumi, Toshiya, 2015. "Recent Development of Net Neutrality Conditions in Japan: Impact of Fiber Wholesale and Long-term Evolution (LTE)," 26th European Regional ITS Conference, Madrid 2015 127152, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse15:127152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/127152/1/Jitsuzumi.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krämer, Jan & Wiewiorra, Lukas & Weinhardt, Christof, 2013. "Net neutrality: A progress report," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 794-813.
    2. Paul Klemperer, 1987. "Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 375-394.
    3. Paul Klemperer, 1995. "Competition when Consumers have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(4), pages 515-539.
    4. Paul Klemperer, 1989. "Price Wars Caused by Switching Costs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(3), pages 405-420.
    5. Jitsuzumi, Toshiya & Koguchi, Teppei, 2013. "The value of personal information in the e-commerce market," 24th European Regional ITS Conference, Florence 2013 88452, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    6. Schuett Florian, 2010. "Network Neutrality: A Survey of the Economic Literature," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Klemperer, Paul D, 1987. "Entry Deterrence in Markets with Consumer Switching Costs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(388a), pages 99-117, Supplemen.
    8. Farrell, Joseph & Klemperer, Paul, 2007. "Coordination and Lock-In: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1967-2072, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Toker Doganoglu, 2010. "Switching costs, experience goods and dynamic price competition," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 167-205, June.
    2. Wohlfarth, Michael, 2017. "Data Portability on the Internet: An Economic Analysis," 28th European Regional ITS Conference, Passau 2017 169506, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    3. Michael Wohlfarth, 2019. "Data Portability on the Internet," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 61(5), pages 551-574, October.
    4. Mark J. Tremblay, 2019. "Platform Competition and Endogenous Switching Costs," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 537-559, December.
    5. Donna, Javier D., 2018. "Measuring Long-Run Price Elasticities in Urban Travel Demand," MPRA Paper 90059, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Ciotti, Fabrizio & Hornuf, Lars & Stenzhorn, Eliza, 2021. "Lock-In Effects in Online Labor Markets," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2021014, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    7. Masashi Umezawa & Shigetaka Yamakawa, 2025. "The impact of switching costs on behavior-based price discrimination with multiple consumer types," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 147-187, July.
    8. Gandelman, Néstor & Roldán, Flavia & Viera, Sofía, 2025. "An Examination of Numerical Portability in Mobile Communication in Uruguay," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13957, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry, 2011. "Contracting and Efficiency in the Surgical Goods Cluster of Sialkot, Pakistan," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 12(1), pages 91-115, March.
    10. Amit Mehra & Ram Bala & Ramesh Sankaranarayanan, 2012. "Competitive Behavior-Based Price Discrimination for Software Upgrades," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 60-74, March.
    11. Czajkowski, Mikołaj & Sobolewski, Maciej, 2016. "How much do switching costs and local network effects contribute to consumer lock-in in mobile telephony?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 855-869.
    12. Ying Lei & Ji Shen & Ei Yang & Xin Zhai, 2025. "On the Profitability of Loyalty," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 306-326, March.
    13. Krämer, Jan & Wohlfarth, Michael, 2018. "Market power, regulatory convergence, and the role of data in digital markets," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 154-171.
    14. Tim Burnett, 2014. "The Impact of Service Bundling on Consumer Switching Behaviour: Evidence from UK Communication Markets," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/321, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    15. Suleymanova Irina & Wey Christian, 2011. "Bertrand Competition in Markets with Network Effects and Switching Costs," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-58, September.
    16. Javier D. Donna, 2021. "Measuring long‐run gasoline price elasticities in urban travel demand," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 945-994, December.
    17. Eric Anderson & Nanda Kumar, 2007. "Price competition with repeat, loyal buyers," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 333-359, December.
    18. Park, Yuri & Koo, Yoonmo, 2016. "An empirical analysis of switching cost in the smartphone market in South Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 307-318.
    19. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107069978.
    20. Miah, Mohammad Dulal & Kabir, Md. Nurul & Safiullah, Md, 2020. "Switching costs in Islamic banking: The impact on market power and financial stability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:itse15:127152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.itseurope.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.