Japan’s third largest operator SoftBank said it will introduce a low-cost plan in April for smartphone customers who use small amounts of data and voice each month.

SoftBank’s rivals NTT Docomo and KDDI are considering offering similar plans for customers who provide their own handsets, Nikkei Asia Review reported.

The move comes after Japan’s government announced plans to put pressure on the three mobile operators to reduce mobile tariffs and give customers a wider variety of data plans. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said in November is it looking to prohibit handset subsidies and ask operators to use the money they save to reduce charges.

Under the new plan, the ministry aims to establish guidelines, based on the Telecommunications Business Law, by February and urge operators to start reducing tariffs in the spring.

SoftBank is the first to announce a low-cost option, reducing its current lowest-price plan, with 2GB of data and unlimited voice, by 25 per cent to JPY4,900 ($39.80) per month for 1GB of data. The plan limits voice calls to five minutes – customers wanting unlimited calls would pay JPY5,900 per month.

The three operators’ current data plans have been criticised for catering to heavy users but being too expensive for light data users.