IP: NTT'S EYE ON AMERICA

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

New laws passed in June will enable Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., the
world's largest telephone company, to pursue international business
opportunities, and analysts are guessing as to where the communications
giant will invest first.  "NTT is a huge company;  it had more revenue last
year than AT&T," says an analyst with the Yankee Group in Tokyo.  "But NTT
is coming a few years late to the international market, and it's not going
to be able to compete with a firm like BT/MCI at first...  The FCC has said
it won't allow NTT and KDD [Japan's long-distance carrier] into the U.S.
domestic market because Japan is still maintaining a 20% investment cap" in
Japanese phone companies.  One observer predicts that NTT will actively move
into other Asian markets, such as China and Thailand, and will form
strategic alliances to serve its Japanese customers' needs in Europe and the
U.S.  Others predict NTT will hook up with one of the global alliances --
Concert (BT/MCI), Global One (Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom),
or World Partners (AT&T and others).  (Investor's Business Daily 28 Jul 97)