May 18, 2004

Telecommunications Business Department
Telecommunications Council



MPHPT invites comments concerning draft partial amendment of MPHPT Announcement No.243



The Telecommunications Council today received an inquiry from the MPHPT Minister concerning a partial amendment of the public announcement concerning the designation of category 1 designated telecommunications facilities (MPHPT Announcement No. 243, 2001).

In this public announcement, the designation as category 1 designated telecommunications facilities is limited to those having the function of distributing telecommunications facilities to other telecommunications carriers or those that can reciprocally match this.

However, with the recent advent of routers that are not appropriate to bottleneck facilities even thought they have the distributing function, regulations have been put in place with this public announcement concerning routers.

The council is inviting comments concerning this public announcement until June 14.

For details refer to the Japanese web site
http://www.soumu.go.jp/s-news/2004/040518_3.html

For further information about this press release, please contact:

International Policy Division, International Affairs Department
Telecommunications Bureau
Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs,
Posts and Telecommunications
Tel: (03) 5253-5920 Fax: (03) 5253-5924

Or visit
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/contact.html to fill in the inquiry form.