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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Roth who wrote (250)	7/5/2000 10:40:23 PM
From: quartersawyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197501

China Daily re: NTT--Gov't lifting foreign purchase restrictions ---------7/6/00 TOKYO: Japan's government, under fierce pressure from the United States, plans to revise laws governing Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT)'s operations to stimulate competition, a daily said yesterday. The former state monopoly's grip on Japan's telecoms market has resulted in a major row with the United States, focused on the interconnection fees that NTT charges to other carriers seeking to use its local networks. NTT group companies would be able to compete against each other under the planned shake-up by the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. NTT East Corp and NTT West Corp would be allowed to offer long-distance, Internet and other services, challenging their stablemates NTT DoCoMo Inc - Japan's biggest mobile telephone firm - and NTT Communications Corp. They would also be able to introduce flexible telephone fees across Japan, which they are banned from doing at present under a government-mandated universal service agreement. The report comes a day after Japan Telecom Co Ltd said it was looking at entering the local telephone market in a direct challenge to NTT's grip on 96 per cent of the market. The ministry would also consider lifting restrictions on NTT group firms' capital expansion and foreign investment, allowing them to take over overseas firms via share swaps, the report said. The group's first overseas forays announced in May are being financed with cash only, raising concerns among some analysts that NTT will have to increase its debt burden. NTT Communications is paying US$5.5 billion to buy US web-hosting firm Verio Inc, and NTT DoCoMo is taking a 15 per cent stake in KPN Mobile NV of the Netherlands for US$4.45 billion. Those deals have attracted scorn from the United States against NTT's claims that it cannot afford big cuts in its interconnection fees. The planned legal revision, which may take effect in three years, was designed to offset US criticism that Japan's government was not doing enough to resolve the row, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Washington and Tokyo are seeking a resolution to the interconnection fees dispute before Japan hosts a Group of Eight summit over July 21-23. The US has reportedly indicated it will accept a compromise Japanese proposal for a 28 per cent cut over two years in NTT's interconnection fees, which it claims are holding back information technology and Internet growth. ---------------------- That's how i-mode works. (jmho.) chinadaily.com.cn