The Japanese government is looking into new guidelines on the country’s mobile phone system that could see connections fees between carriers reduced as early as next year, Reuters reports, citing local newspaper Asahi. Currently, connection fees between Japanese mobile operators, which are unregulated, are seven times those of landline carriers. At around 35 yen ($0.38) per three minutes, the connection charges have been blamed for the high cost of domestic mobile phone calls.

A communications ministry official told Reuters that the government has not yet decided to reduce connection charges, and is in fact, still gearing up to gather opinions on how to better the Japanese mobile phone system. At this stage, it’s unclear how this will impact operators and consumers. If connection fees are reduced across the board for all operators, Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Naoto Osugi told Reuters there shouldn’t be much of an impact on earnings. But if operators are obliged to pass savings on to consumers, it could be “negative” for carriers. Japan’s three main carriers include NTT Docomo, KDDI and Softbank.

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