(Kyodo News International via NewsEdge) Japan's telecom ministry devised a set of competitive steps that would oblige Nippon Telegraph and Telephone to open its envisioned Internet-based next-generation telecom network to its competitors, ministry officials said.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications would start deliberations, possibly this fall, on revising relevant ministry ordinances to require NTT to give its rival telecom services providers access to its planned Web-based telecom network, officials said.
These rules, though strict on NTT, would be integrated into a package of proposals to be released by the ministry's advisory panel, which had been mulling how to spur competition in the telecom industry, they said.
The package has been dubbed the "new competition promotion program 2010" in telecom industry and ministry circles.
NTT has been so far obligated to lease its nationwide fixed-line telephone and fiber-optic line networks to its rivals in exchange for interconnection charges it is allowed to levy.
The ministry concluded that it would be necessary to ensure that non-NTT carriers could provide their services via the planned NTT network if Japan were to secure a fair competitive environment in light of NTT's dominant position in the telecom market.
Other pro-competition measures the panel would propose included one that would effectively oblige NTT to cut the interconnection fees it levied in leasing its fiber-optic network to competitors by mandating that NTT review its fee calculation formula, they said.
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