The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has published the financial results of three new terrestrial telecommunications competitors for Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp: most successful so far has been Dainidenden, backed by Kyocera Corp, with profits of $9.7m, followed by Telecom Japan, which has laid its fibre optic lines along the wayleaves of its major backer, Japan Railways; Japan HighSpeed Communications, backed by Toyota Motor Co and Expressway Corp, whose lines are laid along main roads, is not yet in profit, and made an operating loss of $21m last year; each of the companies still has considerable accumulated startup expenses.