At the end of October, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp had 200,000 subscribers for its cellular car and hand portable telephones: new subscribers have been added at an average rate of 7000 per month and a growth of 50% for this financial year over last is forecast – but NTT has an enormous head start on the much faster-growing UK systems, because its car telephone service started in 1979 with 1,600 subscribers; usage is still mainly for business, and phones are becoming an essential item in the well appointed chauffeur-driven company president’s car; the NTT system presently covers about 70% of the motorways in Japan they do have those awkward and inaccessible mountains – and the in-car telephone is still winning out four to one over the briefcase phone, which at 1 lb 9 oz is considered too heavy; the era of competition in mobile phone service is scheduled to start next month, with Japan Mobile Communications, associated with Toyota Co, beginning city-wide services in Tokyo, to be followed next summer by another new entrant which will offer service in the Kansai area.
NTT HAS 7000 NEW SUBSCRIBERS TO ITS CAR TELEPHONE SERVICE EACH MONTH
