Japanese internet users will soon be able to dial up their internet service provider and stay online as long as they want without worrying about phone bills, under recommendations published Tuesday by the Japanese government. The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication said that consumers needed the same kind of fixed-cost access deals as businesses currently enjoy, in order to stimulate internet growth. It recommended a monthly fee of around 5,000 yen ($42), to be introduced nationwide some time next year.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, Japan’s incumbent telco, currently charges 10 yen ($0.08) for a three-minute local call to an ISP. The report comes a week after NTT said it would introduce such a service by December for ISDN users in selected areas only. The flat fee would be topped up by a 2,830 yen ($23) monthly charge to split the ISDN line into voice and internet lines. The firm will use internet-exclusive lines to reduce the expected congestion on its voice network.
