MARCH 15, 2010 – Reuters, citing The Yomiuri Shimbun, says that the Japanese government is considering spinning off Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp's (NTT’s) fiber-optic businesses. The new company would lay, operate, and lease the network infrastructure currently owned by NTT East and West to its competitors as well as its original owners, the paper said.
The government hopes such a move will speed broadband deployment, reports the Japanese newspaper (see the story).
How the government, which is a partial owner of NTT, would accomplish such a functional separation is part of the consideration, Yomiuri Shimbun writes. Such assets as basic trunk cables could remain with NTT while the new firm performs management and administration. The government is also said to be pondering transferring such assets to the new firm as well.
It seems likely a decision will be reached in time to be unveiled as part of the government’s new broadband acceleration strategy, which Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Japan's minister of internal affairs and communications, has promised to delivery by mid May.