Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group's two regional carriers announced Friday they will cut local-call charges from 10 yen to 8.8 yen per three minutes, starting in May.

The move will mark NTT's first cut in city-call charges since the 1952 inception of its state-owned predecessor, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp.

NTT last made a change in its local-call rates in November 1976, when the charge was raised from 7 yen to 10 yen per three minutes.