Number portability in Japan: Pay 5000 Yen or Forget It

August 31, 2006 – 6:23 pm

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I wrote about the coming of number portability facility in Japan in this blog. Japanese mobile phone users will be able to get this facility from 24 October 2006. Under this, the mobile phone users will be able to keep their numbers even when they change the service of the mobile phone operator. This will ensure a lot of freedom for the users without sacrificing convenience. However, this facility will not come free of charge. For changing the service and keeping the old number, a user will have to pay more than 5,000 yen. I am quoting the Daily Yomiuri:

Softbank and KDDI, which markets its products under the name au, will levy a new contract fee of 2,835 yen for customers switching from other services, while NTT DoCoMo will charge 3,150 yen.

Customers will therefore have to pay a total of 5,250 yen when changing to DoCoMo, while DoCoMo customers switching to other services will pay 4,935 yen.

By the way, the users can shift their old number to the new provider but they will not be able to shift their old e-mail addresses. Still, I am sure that many Japanese consumers will welcome this facility. Japan is the land of cell phones and Japanese people are literally crazy for their cell phones. So, this is a great thing to enjoy.

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