Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp has teamed up with a string of heavyweights including C Itoh & Co, Kawasaki Steel, Nippon Steel and several banks including Fuji Bank to form a joint venture to market off-talk communications, yet another attempt to generate more phone traffic outside peak business hours: British Telecommunications Plc bridles if you remind it of the fact now, but when Prestel was first conceived – under the name Viewdata the idea was specifically for a home information service for use during off-peak hours, and it was only later that business users turned out to be the only constituency really interested; the original concept for Viewdata is just what the Japanese joint venture has in mind, and a news and information subscription service costing just $4 a month is planned – although it is not clear whether the information will be in the form of recorded messages or transmitted to display terminals.
