Telecommunications minister Toranosuke Katayama on Friday dismissed an assertion by the United States that NTT DoCoMo Inc. is overcharging other carriers for connections.
"(The U.S. claim) is inaccurate. I want them to speak based on accurate information," Katayama, minister of public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications, told a news conference.
Washington said April 3 that connection rates charged by mobile phone operators in Japan and Europe are "above cost" and vowed to make reducing the charges a leading item on the U.S. telecom-trade agenda for 2002.