The two trading companies will spend up to 1 billion yen (US$9.5 million) to build a 10km network in the central Tokyo business district, which includes buildings owned by companies linked to Mitsubishi Corp. The area houses many local and foreign banks, insurance companies and brokerages.
Leasing fees for the network are likely to be less than half the local access fees Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp now charges, said Kazunori Fukuda, a spokesman for Marubeni. The project was reported earlier by the Nihon Keizai newspaper.
Marubeni expects the venture to generate sales of about 500 million yen (US$4.7 million) in the year ending March 2004, Fukuda said. It will begin operations in April 2001.
The new company will be capitalized at 490 million yen (US$4.6 million, with a 51 percent stake owned by Mitsubishi Estate and the rest by Marubeni.
NTT has been resisting calls for lower local access fees, saying the government should first abolish the law that restricts the company's business.
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