Japan's top three mobile carriers stopped or will stop charging customers contract cancelation fees, with SoftBank Corp becoming the last to decide on such a plan amid the government's efforts to spur competition in the mobile phone market.
SoftBank, Japan's third largest mobile phone service operator by subscriber, said it will discontinue cancelation charges in February when customers terminate contracts signed by September 2019. The company does not ask for such fees for services subscribed since then.
Leading mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc scrapped its cancelation policy this month and KDDI Corp, the second largest mobile operator, plans to do so by the end of March.
In the mobile phone market dominated by the three companies, each charged or charges 9,500 yen to cancel two-year contracts, discouraging consumers from switching their services to other carriers' whenever they want to.
