Softbank Corp., Tokyo Electric Power Co., and Microsoft Corp. of the United States jointly announced Wednesday in Tokyo that they will set up a joint venture to begin high-speed Internet connection services next summer in the Kanto region, with dramatically low fixed-rates for home users.
The new company will also offer over the next 10 years free Internet connection services to schools and colleges in the region and enough hard disk space at each institution to create Web sites for every teacher and student.
The NTT group plans to charge about 10,000 yen per month for a fixed-rated service of 64 kilobits per second, but the new venture is said to be considering charging between 2,000 yen and 3,000 yen for much higher speeds.