11, 01. 2004
Companies
Cell phone carriers
- NTT DoCoMo
- Leading telecommunication company of NTT group. It maintains overwhelming market share of 60% in mobile phones, maintaining strong brand name.
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/ (English)
http://www.nttdocomo.com/ (Global) - KDDI
- The company with the 2nd largest market share in mobile phone business (known as its brand name au). Taking over another telecommunications company TU-KA Cellular Tokyo and two other related companies in 2005.
http://www.kddi.com/english/
http://www.au.kddi.com/english/index.html (au website) - WILLCOM
- Major PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) operator in Japan, with 3.65 million subscribers (as of Dec. 2005). Launched industry's first fixed-rate voice service in May 2005.
http://www.willcom-inc.com/en/
Home/Office phone carriers
- NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE (NTT)
- Japan's telecommunication giant. The largest share of regional telecommunication service, which is divided into two companies: NTT East and NTT West.
http://www.ntt.co.jp/index_e.html (NTT Group)
http://www.ntt-east.co.jp/index_e.html (NTT East)
http://www.ntt-west.co.jp/index_e2.html(NTT West) - KDDI
- The second largest carrier next to NTT.
http://www.kddi.com/english/ - SOFTBANK
- The company that acquired JAPAN TELECOM in 2004.
http://www.softbank.co.jp/en/index.html
http://www.japan-telecom.co.jp/english/ (JAPAN TELECOM website)
The competent authorities
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)
- The ministry offers information on telecommunication policies, applicable laws and statistics.
http://www.soumu.go.jp/english/
Telecommunications industry organizations
- Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA)
- TCA offers database on the industry, including the number of subscribers to mobile phone services. It also publishes annual reports of the industry.
http://www.tca.or.jp/index-e.html - National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
- The organization offers data obtained from ionosphere sounding and solar observations. Public institution to determine the standard values for time and frequency.
http://www.nict.go.jp/overview/ - Communications and Information network Association of Japan (CIAJ)
- Policy recommendations and statistics on the industry are available on the website.
http://www.ciaj.or.jp/e.htm - Research Institute of Telecommunications and Economics (RITE)
- The institute conducts researches in telecommunications, postal services, logistics and financial services.
http://www.rite-i.or.jp/english/
