The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will urge NTT Corp. to cut the fees it charges other telecommunications companies for use of its fiber-optic lines by fiscal 2008, ministry sources said Friday.
The ministry's committee on competition in the telecommunications market is expected to include the tariff reduction plan in a report due out in July, the sources said.
Based on the rapid growth of ADSL service after access fees were cut, the ministry expects the same to happen with fiber-optic services. Lower fees are seen encouraging new providers to enter the market, resulting in lower charges to consumers.
NTT, which dominates in the fiber-optic communications market with about a 60 percent share, provides fiber-optic access to households for 5,074 yen per month.
Other providers using NTT lines charge about 6,000 yen per month, with the higher charges partly coming from interconnection fees they pay NTT.
The ministry's plan follows the recommendations of an advisory panel to communications minister Heizo Takenaka and a Liberal Democratic Party panel on telecommunications reforms.
NTT aims to expand get 30 million subscribers to its fiber-optic service by fiscal 2010.