Carriers May Need to Pay More in Connection Fees, Japan Phone Giant NTT Says
Posted on: Monday, 1 March 2004, 06:00 CST
Feb. 27--TOKYO -- NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. said Friday the interconnection fees they charge other telecommunications companies to access their phone lines are likely to be a total of 34 billion yen larger than earlier planned for the current fiscal year.
The additional charge consists of 21 billion yen to be paid by KDDI Corp. and other new common carriers and 13 billion yen applicable to carriers in the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) group, the two companies said.
The regional phone units of NTT will raise the fees in order to cover part of the losses they are to incur as a result of a drop in the volume of communication, especially fixed-line phone calls.
When the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications authorized a hike in the interconnection fees last year, it allowed NTT East and NTT West to raise the fees again if the volume of communication drops by more than 15 percent.
For the current fiscal year to March 31, the volume is expected to decrease by 24.2 percent, according to NTT East and NTT West.
Following the two NTT units' announcement, KDDI and four other new common carriers -- Japan Telecom Co., Poweredcom Inc., Cable & Wireless IDC Inc. and Fusion Communications Corp. -- issued a joint statement criticizing NTT's fee system as "extremely imbalanced." Last summer, the five companies filed a lawsuit to nullify the telecom ministry's approval of the interconnection fee increase.
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(c) 2004, Kyodo News International, Tokyo. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
9433, NTT, 9432, CWP, CW, 9434,
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