Broadband Internet Access

Japan

In Japan, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) planned a step-up process from dialup (54 kbit/s), ISDN(64 kbit/s), to FTTH. Under the plan, NTT had been selling ISDN lines. But ISDN was not a constant connection line, so users complained.

ADSL service started by a venture company, Tokyo Metric in 1999. After this NTT started and some other companies followed. In 2001, SoftBank started ADSL (12M) service. It was a shocking event, because the price was about only 3000 yen (30US$), which was half of other companies. Competitor and Softbank dropped prices and speeded up (12M, 24M, 50M) again and again. In 2004, Japan has the best cost performance ADSL in the world (50M, 35US$).

At the same time, NTT and electric power companies expand FTTH areas. In most urban area, people can use FTTH (100M,50 US$), but ADSL is still mainstream. In 2005, Kansai Electric Power started 1 Gbit/s FTTH service at 8700yen (90US$).