The Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on March 14 submitted a draft bill for the revision of the law governing the operation of the previous government telecommunications monopoly NTT. The content of the bill is to provide for the restructuring of NTT into one long-distance company and two regional communications companies, East NTT and West NTT, operating under a holding company which will retain the name Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. Research and development will be done in the holding company. The long-distance company will be a private company and able to provide international communications services. Senior Advisor Eiichi Tanaka of the Telecommunication Policy Division of MPT said that if the law passes the Japanese Diet in June, NTT could start offering international telecommunications services as early as July this year, probably as a Type 2 common carrier, in other words as circuit resellers, but with no particular limits imposed by the MPT on type of service – data or voice. He also said that Japan was ahead of itself in achieving its goals in converting current wireline services to optical fiber. The goal calls for 20% of Japan to be wired with optical fiber by the year 2000; 18% has already been achieved, and this will then stimulate Japan’s electronics industry, he said.
