By Bloomberg, Singapore.CNET.com
Wednesday, September 27 2000 06:29 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,13029641,00.htm

TOKYO--Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp plans to develop what may be the world's first high-speed Internet service delivered directly into homes through optical fiber.

In an NTT opinion paper filed with a committee at the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, the company gave details of plans for the service, which would begin in December in Tokyo and Osaka.

NTT says it has built extensive fiber networks into all parts of central Tokyo and Osaka, making it possible to extend the lines a few hundred meters or less to homes, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported.

The plan has raised concern among rivals that NTT, which is the world's largest telephone company and has almost a monopoly in local telephone calls, will dominate the Internet.

Subscribers for the service would be charged a monthly fee of about ?3,000 (US$120) for a connection that's always on and has a maximum data speed of 10 megabits per second, the paper said. They would also be charged for installation and pay a monthly fee to an Internet-service provider.

NTT has been laying fiber optical cables since 1994.