The DSL Access Platform Forum, which was set up earlier this month by Internet service providers, telecommunications firms and electronics makers, is planning to establish a company within the year to promote businesses using digital subscriber line technology, it was learned Monday.

DSL technology enables high-speed digital data transmissions through existing telephone lines.

With the technology, the forum aims to offer unlimited high-speed Internet access at lower costs, according to forum officials.

"There are some technical problems to applying DSL technology for commercial purposes. We are trying to find solutions for them and publicize the usefulness of the DSL technology," a spokesman for the forum told a press conference Monday.

Led by Mitsui & Co., the forum comprises 18 member companies, including AOL Japan, Inc., DDI Corp., Japan Telecom Co., KDD Corp., NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

The forum will negotiate with Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Group, which owns the telephone lines, to use the lines at low charges, the spokesman said.

As American and European telecom companies have been promoting DSL services in recent years, NTT is planning to begin experimental services in Tokyo and Osaka from December.

NTT is currently replacing telephone lines with optical fiber lines, which can also transmit large volumes of data at high-speed.