Japanese telecommunication reform and the standards-setting process

Abstract

Abstract The recently proposed separation of NTT into three companies would have caused changes in the ways in which telecommunication standards are set in Japan: (a) there would no longer have been a virtual monopsony market in telecommunication equipment in Japan, and no one firm would have dominated; (b) NTT's research labs would have been divided up and might no longer have been the primary source of Japanese standards research effort; (c) MPT's power relative to smaller firms would have been greater, allowing it a greater role in telecommunication standards strategy. This paper explores what some of the effects of such changes might have been.