Details on NTT's proposed roll-out....
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NTT Com To Start High-Speed Wireless Net Access Service In 2003
Wednesday, April 3, 2002
TOKYO (Nikkei)--NTT Communications Corp. will launch a wireless high-speed Internet access service as early as summer 2003, company sources said Tuesday.
The service will be offered at a fixed rate of about 5,000 yen a month, including Internet Protocol (IP) charges.
The long-distance phone company will use wireless technology developed by Soma Networks Inc. of the U.S.
The new service, a potential competitor with asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) and fiber optics services, will be offered to 100 households this summer as a test case before commercial operations are introduced in major cities nationwide in summer 2003. The company aims to sign up 1 million subscribers in two years.
It will install wireless base station equipment at each of its phone stations. Subscribers will have to buy a tool-box-sized in-house communications machine for the wireless link between their homes and a telephone station. Each station will be able to provide wireless services to 3,000-4,000 homes within 8km.
The equipment, priced at around 30,000-40,000 yen, will be connected via telephone and personal computers in homes, with Net access speeds up to 10 megabits per second. The company has kicked off negotiations with the Telecommunications Ministry to obtain approval to use a bandwidth of 2.6 gigahertz.
Subscribers will be able to easily begin using the service immediately after the wireless communications equipment is installed, unlike ADSL services.
About 2 million people used ADSL services and 18,000 used fiber optics at the end of February. NTT Com, which does not own direct access lines to homes, plans to expand the new service as its next main high-speed communications business.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Wednesday morning edition) |
