NTT under pressure to slash interconnection fees

The interconnection fees that European telecommunications companies must pay out to NTT are too high according to the EU.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy will put further pressure on Japan's de facto monopoly fixed line operator to bring the costs down in a meeting with Japanese ministers on Thursday.
Lamy told Japanese daily newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun that the fees are damaging to competition and unfair to foreign competitors. Last year, the US reached an agreement with Japan over the same issues. More than four years of negotiations led to a far-reaching contract that included reduction in costs of up to 50 per cent both for domestic and foreign competitors. Lamy will seek a similar deal and will also try to push for further cost reductions. He added the Japanese market is almost prohibitively expensive for European ISPs and telecommunications service providers even if the scheme between the US and Japan is actually applied as planned for European companies.