Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten Inc., expressed his desire to further lower mobile phone charges in a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, saying there is still room to do so.
The standard mobile phone fees charged by Rakuten, which fully entered the business in April, are already less than half those of the three major mobile phone carriers such as NTT Docomo Inc.
The Yomiuri interview was conducted on Nov. 4. Mikitani, 55, referred to the reduction of mobile phone fees for the first time since Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has advocated lowering such fees, took office in September.
Rakuten has charged no commission for new subscribers this month. In an effort to increase its subscribers, the company is planning to step up its offensive against the three major carriers.
KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. have introduced low-cost large-capacity communication plans with their respective discount brands, charging less than 5,000 yen per month.
"That's within the range of expectations," Mikitani said, adding that his company will not hesitate to cut its monthly charges if competitors launch a plan similar to Rakuten's, which is 2,980 yen excluding tax.
Rakuten subscriptions surged by 1 million in June, but it still lags far behind the big players, which have tens of millions of users. The three major carriers have over 200,000 base stations for the current 4G communication standard, while Rakuten has around 5,700.
Mikitani said the company would move up its schedule for base station construction by five years. He also said it plans to reach by next summer a 96% service coverage ratio, which indicates the percentage of the population living in areas where Rakuten provides coverage.
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