MIC has been conducting the Competition Assessment of the Telecommunications Industry every year since FY 2003.

For the 2014 Competition Assessment, MIC set out and released the “Implementation Items for 2014” in December 2014. Under this plan, MIC will adopt two themes for its strategic assessments in the interest of coordinating the assessments flexibly with the development of competition policy: (1) analysis of the competition environment impact of inter-carrier services in fixed-line ultra-high-speed broadband field, and (2) analysis of the competition environment impact of new fee policies in the mobile communications field.

### e. Promoting wireless LAN usage

MIC's Wireless LAN Business Study Group, launched in March 2012, looked at the current state of wireless LAN and identified and organized issues with the dissemination and the safe and secure use of wireless LAN. The Study Group put together a report in July 2012. Based on recommendations in this report, MIC inaugurated the Wireless LAN Business Promotion Council in January 2013. In addition, the MIC's Study Group on Utilization of Telework and Wi-Fi to Bring out the Potential of Local Areas examined approaches to assisting local governments in tackling the establishment of free public LAN (Wi-Fi) services and published a report in May 2015.

Looking ahead to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, MIC has decided to promote the establishment and raise the convenience of free public wireless LAN services, which are especially in demand from overseas visitors.

## (2) Management of IP address domain names

MIC's Study Group on Advanced Internet Use with IPv6 investigated current issues affecting the adoption of IPv6 and corresponding policy measures. The Study Group then verified the progress on the various issues identified in the Third Report, released in December 2011, and sifted through basic ideas for future actions. From this work, it compiled and released the Third Progress Report in July 2012.

The means of managing and administrating domain names, which are fundamental to the way the Internet works, has become an extremely important issue. Consequently, MIC made an inquiry to the Information and Communications Council about information and communications policy approaching to domain names. Based on the Information and Communications Council's December 2014 report, MIC tabled a bill to partially amend the Telecommunications Business Act and other legislation on April 2015 to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of domain name resolution services. The bill was passed in May 2015.

## (3) Assigning three-digit phone numbers to phone support services provided by the government

The government is setting up various phone support services to handle inquiries about various administrative procedures or inquiries from citizens about various problems they face in their daily lives in order to help citizens lead safe, secure lives.

In view of the importance of the government’s phone support services and the large role they play in helping citizens lead safe, secure lives, and in view of improving the convenience of citizens and making effective use of 1XY phone numbers, MIC made an inquiry in August 2014 to the Information and Communications Council about approaches to using three-digit phone numbers to phone support services provided by the government. The Council’s report, which was received in December 2014, laid out a basic policy on assigning 1XY phone numbers and arranged an order of priority for the use of 1XY phone numbers. The basic policy consisted of two points: (1) 1XY phone numbers should be used to prevent accidents or incidents even in cases when the circumstances are not urgent enough to warrant an emergency call, and (2) 1XY phone numbers should be used to resolve infringements of citizens’ rights that are hindering the smooth conduct of their daily lives.

## (4) Ensuring the safety and reliability of telecommunication infrastructure

MIC submitted a bill to amend the Telecommunications Business Act to the 2014 Ordinary Session of the National Diet to arrange provisions to prevent telecommunication accidents, which have become more diverse and complicated with the diversification and sophistication of networks and services. The bill was passed in June 2014.

Given that the application scope of the obligation to maintain technical standards conformity now includes virtual network operators (paid and over a certain size), the IP Network Committee under the Information and Communications Technology Subcommittee, Information and Communications Council, met beginning in July 2014 to carry out a comprehensive revision of the ICT Network Safety and Reliability Standards, which are guidelines on safety and reliability measures for networks taken by telecommunications carriers and other operators. MIC received a partial reply from the Information and Communications Council in January 2015 and revised the standards.

MIC held the Study Group on the Requirements for Quality of 0AB-J IP Phones, given that the Regulatory Reform Council under the Cabinet Office raised, as a topic for examination, revising the quality requirements for 0AB-J IP telephones (IP telephones whose phone numbers have area codes such as 03 or 06). The Study Group investigated (1) requirements demanded by users for 0AB-J IP telephones, (2) quality requirements from the user point of view based on the latest technological advances and other considerations, and (3) the best approach to 0AB-J IP telephone quality requirements given user needs and the latest technological developments that implement stable quality requirements. The Study Group put together a report in December 2014.