TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's Communications Ministry plans to take administrative action against NTT East Corp and NTT West Corp, the regional phone service units of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, on the grounds that the regional carriers and their subsidiaries are engaging in business practices that create obstacles to healthy market competition, the Nikkei reported at the weekend without citing sources.
The ministry plans to notify both companies' presidents today and ask the companies to submit reports on existing practices and ways to improve them by the end of March.
The Telecommunications Business Law prohibits NTT DoCoMo and the two NTT regional units -- which hold large shares of the fixed-line and fiber-optic markets -- from excluding or providing preferential treatment to any given service provider.
They are also barred from using information obtained through the leasing of telecommunications networks to other providers for their own marketing activities.
But these regulations do not apply to their subsidiaries and affiliates, the report said.
The ministry last year examined the competitive environment in the telecommunications industry and found cases in which NTT East and NTT West had allegedly dodged legal regulations through their subsidiaries.
(1 US dollar = 107.79 yen)
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