Kyodo News The government plans to cut interconnection fees charged by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. by 41.1 percent by the end of 2002, a move Tokyo hopes will resolve a bitter trade row with the United States before this month's Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
Government sources said Thursday that in exchange for accepting the large reduction in the interconnection fee, the government will allow NTT to enter new services by easing a law limiting the scope of NTT's business operations.
The new proposal calls for NTT to cut the fees the telecom giant levies to other carriers for the use of its local networks by 22.5 percent by the end of 2001 and by 41.1 percent within 2002.