Many of Japan’s highways are expected to become information superhighways next year after the Construction Ministry revealed plans to spend as much as $64,000m to lay 95,000 miles of fiber optic cables under the nation’s roads and expressways. The decision follows the recent change in laws that will allow the laying of cables in sewers – a major breakthrough in Japan. Building local or national information superhighways has previously slapped up against a wall of red tape. For instance, cable companies have to get permission every time they want to lay a cable across a road, as well as pay Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp to reinforce its concrete poles each time that a new cable is attached. In the new plan, ducts will be built four inches below the surface of the road to house the fiber optic cables – this in addition to the thicker pipes already under the road that hold gas, electricity and telephone cables. The bill for change was passed because of the country’s growing need to lay fiber optic cables and create multimedia networks. The project is expected to be completed by 2010. The network will compete with Nippon Telegraph’s existing fiber optic lines and would be open to all users including telecommunications operators, cable companies and Internet backbone network providers.
