Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp, AT&T Corp and Sony Corp have agreed to form a joint venture company, NTT FAN Inc to test an on-line multimedia communications service in Japan at the turn of the year that will exploit Sunnyvale, California-based General Magic Inc’s Telescript scripting language and Magic Cap operating system. All three of the partners are investors in General Magic. Subscribers will access the new NTT FAN service via devices running Magic Cap’s software such as Sony’s Magic Link Personal Intelligent Communicators. The technology enables users to send text, graphics, animation and spoken messages over telephone lines using portable communications devices. NTT FAN – Future Agent Network – will be capitalised at $5.8m, with Nippon Telegraph taking 44%, the other two 28% each. The trial service will initially be similar to AT&T’s PersonaLink Services, launched last September and intended to be the foundation for an electronic community where people can meet, shop, work and play and where merchants will offer products and services.
