In 2000, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone restructured in order to respond to market changes. But unlike AT&T in the U.S., the parts of this telecom giant will remain under NTT Groups umbrella.
Changes to the business structure directed by President Jun-ichiro Miyazu included lowering charges for fixed-line telephone service; rolling out state-of-the art, 100-megabit-per-second, fiber-optic access; and internationalizing operations, primarily through NTT Communications and NTT DoCoMo.
NTT Group this year plans to make significant contributions to the governments e-Japan Strategy, which calls for always-on high-speed access to 40 million households within five years. To that end, NTT will further cut rates, continue fiber deployments and launch L-mode services. L-mode provides basic e-mail and browsing functions on specially equipped wireline phones. The company also expects to continue to roll out its IMT-2000 wireless network.
NTT Groups biggest advantage, the company says, is its holding company model, which sustains integrated R&D; provides a full-service product bundle; and allows quick organizational shifts in response to changing market conditions.