NTT's official Annoucement (Jan.12)

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Following was sent via e-mail from NTT's office:
Dave, if you think it's worth, pleaes send it to your list, else,
of course at your disposal...




For Information
January, 1994




NTT's Basic Concept and Current Activities
for the Coming Multimedia Age




Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) announced its basic
concept and current activities for the coming multimedia age.  With the
remarkable development of technology and the increased sophistication and
diversification of information needs, the information communications
industry is now facing a dramatic turning point.  In Europe and the United
States there are already moves toward multimedia beyond the traditional
frameworks and borders of industries and even nations.


Since the liberalization of the Japanese telecommunications market in 1985,
the industry has tended to engage primarily in price competition.  This has
left Japan behind in multimedia development.  With a sense of crisis in
mind, NTT has compiled the following report outlining the direction of the
information communications industries, and what NTT's role in the change
will be.




I. NTT's Basic Concept


1. Changes in the information communications industry


Information communications is greatly changing through technological
innovation, new information needs and service diversification.
Accordingly, the industry structure is expected to change dynamically with
the emergence of new businesses and the rapid development of the software
industry both of which are based on free competition.  Information
communications will enrich people's lives and become a key factor in
activating industry activities.  Governmental support, such as fostering
environments, will be required to achieve the development of information
communications.


(1)Information communications services will greatly change.


   Recent remarkable technological innovations (e.g. down-sized computers,
digital systems, optical fibers, radio access) have the potential to
dramatically change the information communications industry and
significantly impact society, the economy and culture.


   Social changes, such as a higher standard of living and borderless
economies, will create new demand.


   Services will also greatly change from provider-offered services, which
are mainly for telephones, to user-selective services.


(2)Industry structures will dynamically change and a number of new business
opportunities will be created.


   As technological innovations are further developed and customer demands
for informatization become more sophisticated, the telecommunications
industry is expected to enter comprehensive competition in local,
international and other arenas.


   New and intertrade services will be established that cover not only
communications and broadcasting but also media such as newspapers,
computers and home electronics.


   Software will be the key to support the emergence and development of new
and intertrade services.  The development of the software industry is
essential to the evolution of information communications.


   To further the development of the information communications industry,
action from a global perspective will be required, such as collaborations
with other foreign companies.


(3) The information communications industry contributes to the enrichment
of people's lives and the activation of industry activities, and is
expected to be a leading industry in the future.


   The development of information communications through dynamic market
competition will enrich people's lives and promote industry activities.


   The information communications industry has a big influence on related
industries, and is expected to become a leading industry in the 21st
century.


(4) State assistance is essential to the development of information
communications


   Governmental assistance is essential to the development of information
communications.  We look forward to further measures such as greater
deregulation, to build environments to activate the industry as well as to
nurture and promote the software industry.




2. NTT's future business operations


As customer demands become more sophisticated and diversified and services
converge, NTT will actively promote cooperation and tie-ups with
information providers (IPs), manufacturers and customers to develop and
provide new services.  At the same time, NTT will change its position from
"provider-offered services" that emphasize networks to "customer-selective
services" that stress user systems.
To give customers a wider choice, NTT will continue its efforts to open its
networks and prepare for competitive conditions, as well as to provide its
services at affordable rates.  In this way, NTT will provide further
convenience to its customers and will stimulate the information
communications market as an information communications industry operator.


Furthermore, as technologies are becoming more and more converged and
diversified, NTT will endeavor to promote collaborations with a wide
variety of both domestic and foreign industries.  It will also maintain its
technology development capabilities, which are resources for the
information communications industry, contribute to stimulating industries
in general and develop a wide variety of global operations suited to the
coming age.


By making the above efforts, NTT will proceed with business operations that
adapt to changes in information communications services and industry
structures, and contribute to the development of the information
communications industry.


(1) NTT will maintain and sophisticate its telephone services as part of
its universal services.


Making efforts to secure universal services.


Making further advanced telephone services as universal services.


(2) NTT will develop attractive new services through cooperation with IPs,
manufacturers and customers.


Taking quick and emphatic action to achieve high-speed computer
communications services among LANs, which are in high demand.


Actively working to achieve personal communications, such as developing and
commercializing personal handy phones (PHPs) known as PCS or PCN.


Developing visual and multimedia communications services, in which a
variety of services will be integrated, to meet the rapid expansion of
customer needs expected in the future, through cooperation with IPs,
manufacturers and customers.


(3) NTT will promote customization by offering a variety of network
services and provide the best combination of these services to each
customer.


Completing customization by offering a variety of network services and
combining them with user systems, applications, etc.


(4) NTT will endeavor to set rates that ensure easy access to its services.


Aiming to provide sophisticated services at affordable rates and making
efforts to expand customer choices.


(5) NTT will proceed with opening and advancing its networks.


NTT is currently concentrating its resources on the digitization of local
switching system by fiscal 1997.  Frame transmission routes covering all of
Japan have already been digitized.


Promoting customer convenience and stimulating information communications
markets by preparing conditions for fair competition through the
interconnection of operator networks.


Building networks to accommodate sophisticated services.


 $B
activ
ity to maintain and renew facilities, and linking all private homes with
optical cables by the year 2015.


$B
dema
nd, other operator plans and cost reductions due to technical development.


$B
advan
ced services, such as high-speed computer communications and visual
communications.


(6) NTT will maintain its technical development capabilities, which is a
resource for development of information communications industry.


Maintaining such capabilities through an ongoing combination of fundamental
research and applications development on the basis of accumulated research
and development results.


Promoting development projects such as software development in
collaboration with domestic and foreign organizations in various fields, as
technologies become more converged and more diversified.


(7) NTT will strengthen its international activities to respond to
globalization.


Major overseas carriers have been active foreign investors and they are
strengthening collaborations with other carriers to provide services such
as one-stop shopping, in response to global changes including the emergence
of borderless economies.  However, Japanese carriers have just begun to
make such inroads.


NTT will seek further collaborations with domestic and foreign carriers and
vendors to quickly respond to global trends.


(8) NTT will seek collaborations with domestic and foreign companies.


NTT will promote collaborations with domestic and foreign companies to
strengthen its capabilities in developing services and technology.  This
will respond to emerging new fields and intertrade services and ongoing
globalization, which have been made possible by technological innovation
and diversified needs for information.




II.  NTT's Current Activities


In Chapter I, we outlined "NTT's Basic Concept" and position on how to
respond to the global revolution in the information communications
industry, as well as how to enrich people's lives and contribute to the
stimulation of industrial activity.  NTT will engage in specific business
operations on that basic concept.


We will carry out the following urgent tasks and help realize the
multimedia age, working in cooperation with IPs, manufacturers and
customers while listening to the opinions in various fields:


1. Establishment of a Multimedia Promotion Office (tentative name) planned
in February 1994.


2. Perform utilization tests of a high-speed, broadband backbone network
(see Attachment 1).


3. Perform utilization tests of multimedia services for private homes
(see Attachment 2).


Provide circuits to CATV companies and offer Video-on-Demand services


4. Lower the cost of the Optical Access Network (see Attachment 3).


5. Develop new nodes incorporating ATM technology (see Attachment 4).


#         #          #


For further information, please contact:


Hiroyuki Kanamaru or Kenya Nakatsuka
Press Relations
Public Relations Department
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Tel: (03) 3509-3101
Fax: (03) 3509-4290
Email   jun-s () glocom ac jp


Attachment 1


Utilization test of high-speed, broadband backbone network


With computer downsizing and distributed processing, user needs are rapidly
increasing in order to conduct high-speed computer communications such as
LAN-to-LAN communications and large-capacity file transfers.


To respond to such user needs, NTT is closely involved in ATM technology
development and is now at the stage of commercializing this technology.


NTT will construct a high-speed, broadband backbone network (for its
intracompany office automation networks) operating at the gigabit level
utilizing a combination of ATM and optical fiber technologies.  For this,
NTT will establish construction and management technologies as well as new
applications for the network.


In addition, NTT will study the possibility of joint utilization tests on
the network with research institutions interested in the use of high-speed
computer communications and users of multimedia test projects.


The following is the outline and image configuration:


1. Expected experiment launch date


End of September 1994


2. Method


High-speed leased circuits based on ATM technology


Transmission speed:
Backbone network: 2.4 Gb/s, 10Gb/s, etc.
User network interface: 156 Mb/s, etc.


Applications:High-speed computer communications and multimedia
communications




Attachment 2


Utilization Test of Multimedia Services for Private Homes
 Providing Circuits to Cable Television Companies
& Video-on-Demand
Due to advances in technology, interactive video communications such as
Video-on-Demand have been developed and are expected to result in great
market demand.  The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), in a
January 1994 report entitled Toward the Creation of a New
Info-communications Industry, announced its policy of "coping with issues
pertaining to merging broadcasting and communications systems."


Under this background, NTT will conduct utilization tests on integrated
systems that provide communications circuits to cable television companies
and highly sophisticated services such as Video-on-Demand along with its
existing telephone services.


The outline of the experiments is as follows:


1.   Expected launch date:      Early in 1995


2.   Target users:      Home users


3.   Methods:   Circuits for cable television companies,        Video-on-Demand,
and telephones




Reference:
In the United States, cable television companies, telecommunications
carriers and computer manufacturers are collaborating with each other and
planning experiments into developing highly sophisticated information
communications services in the multimedia age such as Video-on-Demand,
interactive TV games, video teleconferences and so forth.




Attachment 3


Development of a Low-cost Optical Access Network


The establishment of Optical Access Networks is crucial to meeting
diversified, highly sophisticated needs for information.  NTT is
concentrating on lowering the cost of its Optical Access Networks to
private homes, focusing on the following three points:


1)Lowering the costs of Optical Network Units (ONU) and Subscriber Line
Terminals (SLT)


2) Lowering the cost of optical fibers


3) Developing new wiring and construction methods


By integrating available resources, NTT hopes to bring down the cost of
using the Optical Access Network to private homes to about the same level
as that for existing metal wiring sometime between 2000 and 2005.




Reference:


Attempts are being made in the United States to launch multimedia
communications through cable television networks.  Once multimedia
communications are fully developed, a major shift to FTTH (Fiber to the
Home) is foreseen due to the high demand for stable, high-capacity
transmissions.  In Europe, the condition of subscribers (e.g., the distance
between NTT and home) is similar to that of Japan, so the shift to FTTH may
be achieved more quickly than in the United States.  Both European
countries and the United States are expected to shift to FTTH in the
forthcoming multimedia age.


NTT has worked on FTTH from early on and, in the field of optical
communications, is a recognized world leader.  NTT hopes to contribute to
further developments in the information communications field by
implementing its Optical Access Network.




Attachment 4




Development of a New Node Incorporating ATM Technology


In answer to the demands for advanced services such as multimedia, digital
transit network functions must be developed further.  NTT has worked on
developing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology.  However, market
demands require flexible and rapid adaptation to respond to computer and
multimedia communications.  NTT is thus promoting the development of a new
node (with a common platform in accordance with market demand).


The new node will be introduced as sophisticated services are expanded and
existing switching systems are replaced.