Ministry of Construction Plans JAPAN

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: cameronj () mcc com
Reply-To: efj () twics com
Subject: Ministry of Construction Plans


The Ministry of Construction has firmed up a plan by which a cooperative
government-private body would lay 420,000km of fiber-optic cable underneath
the nation's roads to create a Japanese version of the "information
superhighway." The ministry feels a cooperative organization will be
necessary in order to install cable linking metropolitan network loops
envisioned by MPT under its "information highway" next-generation
communications infrastructure project.  Independent installations by NTT
and the new common carriers would be costly and inefficient, and would
increase the amount of roadwork necessary, according to the Construction
Ministry.




The two ministries will meet to discuss project goals and specific
strategies for allocating expenses.  (4/8/94: Dempa [p.2])