5G全国整備へ新制度 光回線維持で負担金
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5G 経済 ネット・IT
2020/1/20 18:00日本経済新聞 電子版
総務省は、次世代通信規格「5G」の基盤となる光ファイバー回線を全国的に維持する負担金制度をつくる。どこでも高速インターネットの環境を整備するためで、2024年にも携帯電話を含むネット利用者から広く薄く徴収し始める。不採算地域で光回線を持つ事業者に資金を交付し、回線の補修や更新に充てる。米英などはすでに高速ネットを不可欠なサービスに位置づけており、日本も制度化する。
米国は固定電話サービスの維持のために大規模な基金があり、この資金を受け取る電話会社に高速ネットサービスの提供も義務づける。英国は高速ネットを18年の制度改定でユニバーサルサービスに追加。カナダも高速ネット整備で基金を設け、30年までに普及率を100%とする目標を掲げる。
日本は銅線などで音声を伝える固定電話を「国民生活に不可欠な通信サービス」（ユニバーサルサービス）と位置づけ、NTT東日本・西日本のサービスを維持するための交付金制度を02年に設けた。現在は携帯や固定電話の利用者から月2円を電話代に上乗せして徴収する。光回線も同様に、全国どこでもアクセスできる不可欠なインフラと位置づけ、維持する姿勢を打ち出す。
総務省は春に有識者会議を立ち上げ、21年夏までに制度案を固める。22年の通常国会に電気通信事業法改正案の提出をめざす。光回線に接続する携帯会社などが負担し、利用者の月額料金に上乗せされる。1契約あたり月数円の負担が見込まれる。
現在、光回線が整備されていない地域には約70万世帯が暮らしている。政府は補助金などを使って整備を促しており、23年度末までに18万世帯に減らせる見通しだ。光回線の設置から維持の段階に移るのにあわせて交付金の制度をつくる。
光回線は5G普及に必要になる。5Gは遠くまで飛ばない電波を使うため、現行の4Gよりも数多くの携帯基地局が必要になる。5Gでの自動運転やスマート農業は人口の少ない地域での活用が期待されている。このためには地方にも基地局をつなぐ光回線を細かく張り巡らす必要がある。
政府は19年12月にまとめた20年度税制改正大綱に5G基地局の整備を前倒しした携帯大手への法人税減税を盛り込んだ。減税や予算で早期整備を促し、交付金で将来にわたり光回線を維持できるようにする。
人口の少ない山間部や離島などの不採算地域のうち、光回線を整備する事業者が1つしかないエリアを交付金の対象とする案が浮上している。光回線維持で赤字が発生した場合は全額を補填する方向。特定の地域で営業しているケーブルテレビ会社や自治体、第三セクターが主な対象になりそうだ。
交付金を受け取った事業者は光回線の維持をしなければならない仕組みにする。事業者は光回線の敷設の義務は負わないため、光回線の整備を担保するものにはならない。
全国で必要な交付金は年数十億円とみられる。NTTドコモなどの携帯大手や通信事業者、ケーブルテレビ会社といったネットサービスを手がける事業者から契約者数や収益規模に応じて徴収する方向で検討する。
総務省は以前から議論のある携帯電話をユニバーサルサービスの対象とすることは当面見送る。米英が固定電話サービスを携帯で代替することを認めているが、携帯自体の提供を義務づけている国はないとみられる。
Translation
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications would
establish a nationwide contribution system to maintain the optical fiber lines
that might form the basis of the next generation communication standard
"5G". In order to improve the environment of high-speed Internet
everywhere, it would begin to collect fees wide and thin from Internet users
including mobile phones in 2024. Funds would be provided to optical lines
operators in unprofitable areas to repair or renew lines. The United States and
the United Kingdom had already positioned high-speed internet as an
indispensable service, and Japan had also institutionalized it.
The United States had a large fund for maintaining
fixed-line services, and mandated that telephone companies that received these
funds also provided high-speed Internet services. The UK revised its 2018
high-speed internet system by adding universal services. Canada had also set up
a fund and set a goal of 100% penetration for high-speed internet development by
2030.
Japan positioned fixed-line telephones that transmitted
voice over copper wires as "universal communication services indispensable
to people's lives" (universal services), and established a grant system in
2002 to maintain the services of NTT East and West Japan. Currently, 2 yen per
month was added to the phone bills of mobile and landline users. In the same
way, optical line would be positioned as an indispensable infrastructure that could
be accessed anywhere in the country, a posture to maintain such was seen.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications would
launch a meeting of experts in spring and to finalize a plan by the summer of 2021.
It aimed at submitting a draft amendment for the Telecommunications Business
Law to the regular Diet in 2022. Expense would be borne by the mobile company
that connected to the optical line, and to be added to the user's monthly fee.
A contract to cost several yen per month was expected.
Currently, there were about 700,000 households living in
areas where optical lines were not available. The government was using
subsidies and other means to promote maintenance, and expected to reduce to
180,000 households by the end of 2023. A grant system would be created collectively
as the optical lines were moving from the installation stage to the maintenance
stage.
Optical lines were required for the spreading of 5G. Since
5G used radio waves that could not travel far, more mobile base stations were
required than the current 4G. Using 5G in autonomous driving and smart farming could
be expected in areas with small populations. For this purpose, it would b
necessary to finely distribute optical lines connecting base stations to rural
areas.
The government in its FY2020 tax reform outline that was summarized
in December 2019 had accelerated the development of 5G base stations and included
a corporate tax cut for major mobile phone companies. Tax cuts and budgets might
encourage early maintenance, and grants could allow fiber optic lines to be
maintained into the future.
Among unprofitable areas, such as mountainous areas and
remote islands where population was low, there were plans to grant subsidies to
areas where there was only one operator to install optical lines. If a deficit occurred
during the maintenance of the optical line, the direction would be to
compensate for the full amount. In specific areas cable TV companies,
municipalities and third sectors operators were likely to be the main targets.
Arrangement would be made so that operator who received the
grant had to maintain the optical line. Since business operators were not
obligated to lay optical lines, they did not guarantee the maintenance of
optical lines.
Nationwide the required grants were expected to be billions
of yen a year. Consideration would be
made on the direction of collection according to the number of subscribers and
the size of the revenue from mobile service providers such as NTT DoCoMo, together
with telecommunications carriers and cable TV companies behaving as operators in
dealing with Internet services.
For the time being, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications had put aside making mobile phones as the target for universal
services which had been discussed before. The United States and the United
Kingdom had allowed mobile phones to replace landline services, but no country
seemed to oblige with the provision of mobile phone itself.
So, Japan is laying
the ground work to finance the 5G network nation wide.
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