(Kyodo News International via NewsEdge) The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has decided to urge NTT to cut the fees it charges other communications services providers for using its fiber-optic lines as early as fiscal 2008, ministry sources said.
The ministry's committee on competition in the telecommunications market is expected to include the reduction plan in its report due out July, the sources said.
Having seen ADSL services rapidly expanded throughout the nation after lowering access fees, the ministry expects the same result in the fiber-optic services, lower fees would encourage new service providers to enter the market, and therefore lower the charges for end-users.
NTT currently dominates the fiber-optic communications market with about a 60% share.
The ministry's plan is in line with the position of an advisory panel on the matter to communications minister Heizo Takenaka and a ruling Liberal Democratic Party panel on communications reforms.
NTT aims to expand its fiber-optic services to 30 million subscribers by fiscal 2010.
It sees the current level of fees charged to other service providers for using its fiber-optic lines as still at unprofitable levels.
But analysts say that increasing fiber-optic subscribers would lower the cost of building facilities per household, and therefore would give NTT more room to lower the connection fees for other service providers.
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