Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp and several smaller Japanese telecoms providers have reached an agreement which will see high-speed, unlimited internet access becoming available to subscribers at a monthly rate of less than 7,000 yen ($67). NTT has agreed to allow its lines to be used for a monthly fee of 800 yen per circuit.
Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp will later this month begin trial service for non-corporate customers in some parts of Tokyo at a monthly rate of 5,500 yen, including communications and access charges. Adding in the fee for using NTT telephone lines should lift the total charge to 6,300 yen. New Coara, NTT-ME Corp and KDD Corp will begin offering a similar service next year.
The new service will employ ADSL technology enabling throughput at 500-640 kilobits per second, or eight to 10 times ISDN speed.
