On Friday, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp reported its first profit rise in five years, aided by rate hikes in business areas where it had been making heavy losses. A 16% rise in basic monthly fees and a rise in directory enquiry rates in February boosted profits by the equivalent of $350m during the year, but pressure to break the company up, reports Reuters, clouds its future. Government officials will present the results of a one-year review of its operating status by March next year. It presently has a monopoly of local calls in Japan and despite nearly a decade of competition from three direct rivals, still has 70% of the long-distance call market. The company’s voluntary retirement programme was successful to the extent that it trimmed its payroll to 194,700 by March from 215,600 a year earlier, which reduced labour costs by $1,350m. The company is not at all happy with its profit levels, and says it needs at least $4,700m in parent current profits in order to continue its investments in digital infrastructure. It expects its parent current profit to do better than double to reach $3,760m this year as higher basic phone rates and personnel cuts feed through.
