Getting on the same wavelength
Telecommunications equipment and services is big business in Japan. The market for handsets, mobile and fixed infrastructure, and other related products and services is worth over €100 billion a year.
Representing this fast-developing and strategic industry for the EBC is its Telecommunications Equipment Committee. The committee may be small, with only four member companies, but it has been playing an active role in monitoring the development of Japan’s telecommunications infrastructure and issuing recommendations. In fact, the EBC is an official participant in policy committees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC).
The EBC Telecommunications Equipment Committee has been working on a number of issues, mainly technical, over the past few years. A leading concern was the allocation of new available frequencies in the 700MHz and 900MHz spectrum (formerly the domain of analog broadcasters), which are essential for development of Japan’s 4G mobile services. At issue was whether the MIC would allocate specific frequency ranges matching global standards, or offer frequencies used only in Japan.
Yoshio Honda, chairman of the EBC Telecommunications Equipment Committee, recalls that when the ministry first started pondering the issue, back in early 2010, it looked as though the latter approach would be taken.
“But we told them that wasn’t a good idea at all. We said you should look at other countries and at the world, and try to harmonise as much as possible. Otherwise, there will be huge penalties,” he says. Equipment manufacturers, for example, would have been penalised by the extra cost of having to produce devices adapted solely to the Japanese market.
The advice, from Honda and the many other experts on the government’s MIC committee, paid off. By late 2010, “the government finally started moving in the right direction,” he says.
Frequencies in the harmonised 900Mhz spectrum are to be allocated this month, while allocation of those in the 700Mhz band is expected later this year.
So why were Japan’s regulators balking at offering internationally harmonised frequencies? That was because some devices, such as wireless microphones, already use those frequencies. Now the regulators face the task of shifting users of such devices to other frequencies, to avoid interference. “That’s a big pain,” concedes Honda.
As with several other EBC committees, certification remains an important issue. Some progress has been seen in this area, under the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) between Japan and the EU, introduced a decade ago. Under this agreement, certification organisations in Japan and the EU can carry out testing for the two markets. In other words, a laboratory in Japan can carry out the European certification process on equipment for approval in Europe, as well as the Japanese process for approval in Japan – and vice-versa for a laboratory in Europe. However, the committee wants to see a single harmonised process to replace the two tests, which are quite similar.
The committee’s newest advocacy issue concerns translation of Japan’s regulations on telecommunications business law and wireless equipment. The Japanese government provides translations, but they are often woefully out of date.
“The English versions we received were from 2005,” the committee boss explains. Hence the committee is calling on the government for more regular and timely translations.
“It’s not a critical problem for a company like Ericsson, which has a lot of people who can read the material,” says Honda, but he emphasises that new market entrants with fewer resources may be hampered.
In preparation for talks between the EU and Japan in economic integration discussions, the committee has submitted the translation issue, as well as the recommendation for a more complete MRA.
A third submitted issue is called the Self-Verification of Conformity (SVC), which is similar to the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity used in Europe, whereby a first party, or a supplier, provides assurance that its product meets certain requirements. Japan introduced SVC back in 2004. The problem is that the measure is limited to wired equipment. The committee wants it expanded to wireless devices as well.