One of the new independents, Japan Telecom, backed by Japan Railways, has been taking a leaf out of Mercury Communications’ book: this month, it inaugurated its new public telephone service by installing 60 payphones at station in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka – and reports that 3,600 calls were made in the first day between 10am and 4pm; 40 of the phones are located in Tokyo, five in Ueno, 10 in Nagoya and five in Shin-Osaka – all major stations for the Shinkansen bullet train; its cCharges are about 20% cheaper for long-distance rates, although slightly higher than NTT’s rates for local calls in the Tokyo area; it plans to install 75 more phones this year, and 400 at key railway stations in the Tokyo area over next few years, and hopes for $400,000 of payphone business in Year One.
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