NTT Communications Corp. and Korea Telecom have agreed on a comprehensive business alliance to jointly offer global services for multinational corporate users, the two firms announced Tuesday. Under the agreement, NTT Com and Korea Telecom, the largest telecom company in South Korea, will also cooperate in dealing with growing communication traffic on the Internet between Japan and South Korea, NTT Com officials said. In addition, the two companies plan to develop Internet portals in both Japanese and Korean languages and create bilingual application software, they said. "This partnership will be meaningful for both of the companies to promote businesses in the online service market in other Asian coun tries," Satoshi Fujita, a senior vice president and general manager of global business division at NTT Com., told a news conference. Most Internet traffic between Japan and South Korea goes through online servers in the United States because there are few services directly linking the two nations, according to NTT Com officials. Under the business alliance, the two companies will connect each other's Internet lines that can carry large volumes of traffic to provide convenient services to their customers, they said. NTT Com, which was created as a long-distance and international call service in July, and Korea Telecom, based in Sungnam, Kyonggi Do, will also jointly operate online networks connecting the United States with the two nations.
