Fwd: NTT announced New Strategy on Multi-media

[David J Farber <farber@radiomail.net>]

----- Forwarded Message


Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 00:38:02 +0900
From: izumi@glocom.ac.jp
Subject: NTT announced New Strategy on Multi-media
To: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu


While Mr Gore is making announcment at Superhighway Summit,
NTT today announced its New Strategy to Multi-media
networking emphasising the basic shift from network-driven
to customer-driven.


Details are not yet avialble to my desk, it says that
a fundamental change in telecommunications business is
inevitable, based mostly on the technological innovation
around digital and computer networking as well as fiber
and wireless.


The conventioanl telephone business with service-provider
centric structure will be changed into more customized
services that user can choose more freely, in a dynamic
way.


Referring to what;s happening in U.S., a new multi-media
network will be emerged, making communications industry
as the leading industry towards the next century.


It also says that the National Government's support is
essential for telecommunicaitons industry's future
development (sounds like a bit 'political' statement, I felt).


And for NTT specificaly,
while keeping the 'universal service' concept with telephone
business, it will also put major effort on developing new
kind of businesses in cooperation with Information Providers,
manufactures as well as customers.


And it will put priority to LAN-LAN highspeed computer networking
service urgently, among other things.
It will also make effort for personal communications such as
PHP.
For visual, or multi-media networking, cooperative development
with IP, manufactures and customers will be the main direction.




It also said that NTT will promote 'open and high performance
network' to be developed.


According to some sources, NTT will be one of the first of telephone
common carriers in the world that will put major effort on flat, 
internetworking type of communications business which is fundamentally 
different from the telephone network architecture.


Whether this strategy will come true or not still requires alot
of time, effort and good observation, the startegy announced
today is the result of about 1 year(or perhaps more) of internal
study around the various new fileds of technologies including
Internetworkin, Personal computers, multi-media and so on.
I guess NTT is making a rather serious shift of thier own business
strategy. They are quite aware of the fact that they are rather
behind, from US or other Wetern counterparts.






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Izumi Aizu
Research Director
Institute for HyperNetwork Society
   and
Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan