## Section 5

## I mproving Citizens’ Standard of Living through Development of ICT Infrastructure and Promotion of ICT Utilization

### 1. Elimination of the digital divide and utilization of broadband infrastructure

## (1) Efforts to eliminate the digital divide

With the goal of eliminating broadband-zero areas and areas with poor cellular phone reception by the end of FY2010, and otherwise laying out concrete steps to bridge the digital divide the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) set up the Strategic Council on Bridging the Digital Divide in October 2007 and a final report was prepared and announced in June 2008.

Based on this, the Strategy on Bridging the Digital Divide was formulated as a master plan.

As of the end of March 2009, the estimated broadband service area coverage rate of households stands at 98.8%, and the super-high-speed broadband service area coverage rate of households at 90.1%. With regard to the elimination of the remaining broadband-zero areas (1.2%, or 640,000 households, as of the end of March 2009), as it is difficult to rely solely on private operators to develop a broadband infrastructure, in the first supplementary budget for FY 2009 provisions are made for approximately 340 projects requested by municipalities (at a total project cost of about 230 billion yen), and with implementation of development of FTTH, etc. through public development methods, broadband access is expected to be newly provided to approximately 340,000 households. As for the remaining 300,000 or so households, the majority are expected to be covered through expansion of the business area of private-sector enterprises, but certain areas suffer from inefficient development and as there are currently no requests for development support from the municipalities in question, for the time being they are thought best addressed through satellite broadband. Through such efforts, broadband-zero areas could potentially be eliminated before the end of FY 2010. While such broadband development efforts are moving forward on a nationwide basis, there remain issues to be overcome, such as inadequate utilization of broadband (the optical broadband utilization rate stands at approximately 1/3), etc.

The MIC also established the Study Group to Promote Development of Cellular phone Coverage Areas in March 2009 with the aim of reviewing the goals for further coverage area development for cellular phone services and considering specific measures based on the Strategy on Bridging the Digital Divide. A final report was compiled and released in March 2010.

## (2) Verification of the “Broadband Open Model”

In order to contribute to the resolution of challenging regional issues by harnessing the power of optical broadband, which can provide high-speed, high-capacity communications at relatively low cost regardless of distance, in November 2009 the MIC launched the The Optical Broadband Utilization Study Team. This study team compiled and released an interim report in April 2010, outlining the construction of a Broadband Open Model incorporating cloud services into an optical broadband system and measures for its utilization for lower-cost, higher quality local government, education, challenged people's issues and the medical field. The MIC plans further deliberations on uses for the Model as the FY 2010 budget allows.

#### 2. Regional promotion, etc., utilizing the information and communications infrastructure

Acknowledging that correcting the regional divide is an urgent issue, the MIC is committed to developing support systems aimed at construction of successful models through such steps as dispatching regional informatization advisors and setting up the Portal Site for Community Revitalization through ICT (jointly with the Association for Promotion of Public Local Information and Communication).

Also, starting in FY 2010, the MIC is building on the past results of the Regional ICT Utilization Model Construction Project to formulate regional ICT human resources cultivation strategies, utilization procedures and ICT system standard specifications for application to broad-based partnerships between local governments. In addition to promoting the smooth and efficient adoption of ICT by highlighting the benefits of economies of scale to be achieved by such a partnership and outlining technological and other procedures for introduction, the MIC is continuing to implement the Regional ICT Utilization Model Construction Project as a means of achieving broad-based cost reductions at both the national and local government levels.