Two of Japan's new generation telecommunications carriers born in
the 1980s announced yesterday that they want to merge. The
international carrier is International Telecom Japan Ltd and the
domestic one is Japan Telecom Co Ltd, Japan's third-biggest long-
distance carrier. The former monopoly international carrier Kokusai
Denshin Denwa Co had long served as a comfortable pre- retirement
berth for superannuated Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications
officials, and the whole ministry was thown into a ferment when
Cable & Wireless Plc rallied Japanese industrial interests to
form International Digital Communications Inc and lay its own
Pacific cable, and International Telecom Japan was formed to lease
lines from Kokusai Denshin and crimp the newcomer's growth. Japan
Telecom is number three in long- distance, and reckons it would be
difficult to survive operating only long-distance services. The new
grouping hopes to get a prime position in one of the three
international one-stop shops - Concert, WorldPartners or Global
One. The share swap merger will create a firm with annual sales of
some $3.25bn.
