IIJ To Launch "IIJ Public Safety Mobile Service" for Public Agencies

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TOKYO - September 25, 2023 - Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (TSE Prime: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, today announced a new mobile service for police, fire departments and other public agencies, "IIJ Public Safety Mobile Service," to be launched April 1, 2024.
The new service, which supports the Public Safety-LTE (PS-LTE)(*1) being promoted by the Japanese government, is a mobile service exclusively for use by public agencies. The service will be provided on dedicated facilities separate from the equipment used for other MVNO services offered by IIJ, and will support disaster priority telephone service. It will therefore be largely immune from facility congestion affecting ordinary users. It will also be given redundancy through multicarrier support, and realize reliable and smooth communication by public safety agencies in a disaster.

• (*1)PS-LTE: A network for public safety using mobile phone (LTE) technology. Besides voice, it enables sending and receiving of still images, video and other media. With the ability to use commercial mobile phone networks and ordinary smartphones, the technical hurdles for interconnection between different agencies are also low. (Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications White Paper, "Information and Communications in Japan" (2023) Part Two, Chapter 5, Section 3 (2), Public Safety LTE

Disasters in Japan have been occurring with increasing frequency and severity; moreover, the risks are said to be rising, including a high probability that a large-scale earthquake will occur in the future. The polices of the government on disaster countermeasures call for building national resilience, that is, creating safe and secure national lands, regions, and socio-economic systems able to recover quickly in the event of a disaster.
As a service supporting PS-LTE, being promoted by the government in line with the national resilience policy, IIJ from April 2024 will provide the IIJ Public Safety Mobile Service.
The main features of the new service are as follows.

Dedicated facilities for ensuring communication quality

This service will be operated on dedicated facilities for public safety agencies, providing communication service that is not readily affected by equipment congestion or traffic increases in services for ordinary users. The provided rate plans, moreover, are not subject to service stoppage, bandwidth throttling or other restrictions even when the contracted data capacity is exceeded.

Multicarrier support

Multicarrier support in the case of this service means that a contract for a single communication circuit comes with support for both NTT DOCOMO and KDDI circuits. The service can be used with ordinary smartphones widely available on the market that come with dual-SIM support.

Provision of disaster priority telephone service

When a disaster or other incident causes communication facilities to become congested, carriers may impose restrictions on ordinary telephone connections, such as limiting calling or the number of connections. In the case of disaster priority telephone service, however, calling and connections are not affected by these restrictions. MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is also supported.

Service Overview

Available from

April 1, 2024

Service users

Agencies designated by the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications pursuant to Article 56:1 of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act (Ministerial Ordinance of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications No. 25 of 1985)(*2)

• (*2)Disaster relief organizations; organizations involved in the supply of electricity, water, or gas; or other national or local public agencies that handle essential communication.

Basic monthly charge (tax included)

Plan (data limit)(*3)	1GB	3GB	10GB	30GB
SIM type:Voice SIM(*4)	JPY1,400	JPY1,900	JPY2,800	JPY4,200

• (*3)Sharing of data capacity is supported.
• (*4)Provision of a data-only service is under study.

Other fees (tax included)

Initial fee	JPY3,300
Universal service fee	Included in basic monthly charge.
Voice call charges	JPY11 per 30 seconds for calls inside Japan. International calls are charged based on the rates for the connected country or region.

Service Specifications

Data communication	Data capacity sharing	Either of the following can be selected. Sharing of data capacity between the two circuits indicated at "Provided circuits" Sharing of data capacity among all contracted communication circuits
	Charges for communication exceeding the contracted capacity	JPY330/1GB
Options	Disaster priority telephone service option	No charge(*5)
	Email option	JPY350 per month per user
	Unlimited voice call option(*6)	JPY2,000 per month per user
Provided circuits	The following two circuits are provided as a set. Circuit supporting NTT Docomo LTE network and 5G network (NSA mode) Circuit supporting KDDI 4G LTE network and 5G network (NSA mode)

• (*5)There is an upper limit on the provision of disaster priority telephone service.
• (*6)The charges and other service provision conditions are subject to change.

• See https://www.iij.ad.jp/biz/public-safety/ for more about IIJ Public Safety Mobile Service. [in Japanese]

IIJ will continue pursuing initiatives that help to ensure smooth notifications and information sharing by public agencies.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results.

For inquiries, contact

IIJ Corporate Communications

• +81-3-5205-6310
• +81-3-5205-6377
• press@iij.ad.jp

• (*) All company names and service names used in this press release are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.