The Fair Trade Commission is investigating a regional telephone unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. for allegedly blocking other companies from starting digital Internet services, a violation of the Antimonopoly Law, commission sources said Tuesday.
The sources said NTT East Corp. may have hindered attempts by eAccess Ltd., Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp. and other firms hoping to provide digital subscriber line services by delaying replies to their requests to connect prospective customers' phone lines.
NTT, a former state-run domestic telephone monopoly still partly owned by the government, controls most local circuits reaching homes and businesses in Japan, forcing most new entrants to reach their customers via NTT circuits.