KDD will start domestic telephone service in July, taking advantage of a revised law that allows the international telecom company to enter the domestic market, KDD President Tadashi Nishimoto said June 20.
Nishimoto said that KDD will first start domestic telecom services for its corporate customers in July by connecting its lines to both NTT and Teleway Japan Corp., a carrier that offers long-distance services. "By entering Japan's domestic telecommunications market, we aim to become a global corporation," Nishimoto said in a press conference.
Early in the 1998 business year, KDD will expand its domestic long-distance service to individual customers and start offering both an international and domestic discount package. By 1999, KDD plans to lay an undersea fiber-optic cable, the Japan Information Highway Cable. The cable will encircle the Japanese archipelago and enable KDD to develop its domestic services, Nishimoto said.
The president also said that KDD expects to become a fully privatized company by fiscal 1999. The bills allowing the KDD move were passed June 13 along with two other telecommunications bills aimed at splitting up NTT Corp. The Telecommunications Business Law was also revised to clarify rules for the connection of circuits between different telecom carriers.