November 16, 2021 Start Date of Construction Work for the Planned Change of Network Functions of NTT East and West

On Thursday, October 7, 2021, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (hereafter NTT East, headed by INOUE Fukuzo, President) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation (hereafter NTT West, headed by KOBAYASHI Mitsuyoshi, President) submitted a plan to add network functions to their FTTH access services for providing IP telephony using 10 Gbit/s interfaces. Concerning this plan, they have decided to move up the start date of the construction work for the plan. Accordingly, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) announces the same.

Under the provisions of Article 36, Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Telecommunications Business Act (Act No. 86 of 1984), telecommunications carriers (*) that establish category I designated telecommunications facilities shall notify the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications if the telecommunications carriers plan to add or change the network functions of the facilities. Furthermore, the telecommunications carrier shall make the plan public.
The notification of the plan to add or change the network functions must be made, in principle, at least 90 days prior to the start of the construction, in accordance with Article 24-2, Paragraph 1, Item 4 of the Regulation for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act (Ministerial Ordinance of MPT No. 25 of 1985). However, if other telecommunications carriers submit no opinion during the period for receiving opinions after the publication of the said plan pursuant to the provisions of item 3(c) of the same paragraph, the date of commencement of construction may be moved up to a date 40 days after the date of notification.
Concerning the plan of NTT East and NTT West to add the network functions for providing IP telephony in FTTH access services using 10 Gbit/s interfaces, which they notified and announced on Thursday, October 7, 2021, the period for receiving opinions was set from Friday, October 8 through Monday, November 8, 2021. As a result, no other telecommunications carriers submitted opinions during the said period. Accordingly, they reported to MIC to move the construction start date from Wednesday, January 5, 2022, to Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
Therefore, under the provisions of Article 24-2, Paragraph 3 of the Regulation for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act, MIC announces that the case listed in Article 24-2, Paragraph 1, Item 3 (c) of the Regulation for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act has come to apply to the plan to add the network functions.

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  NTT East and NTT West are applicable.