NTT Communications Corp. will start offering this spring an Internet protocol-based international phone service as part of its global IP-based intranet data communications services.

A company spokesman said Thursday the service will enable companies to connect to their overseas offices in 88 countries and territories, and slash phone costs by 30 percent to 50 percent.

This is an added service to its existing IP-VPN (virtual private network) service called Arcstar Global IP-VPN, he said.

IP-VPN service is being offered by other telecommunications carriers as well, including KDDI Corp.

But NTT Communications, a unit of NTT Corp., is the first one that has included IP phones in IP-VPN, the spokesman said.

There were 124 corporate users for NTT Communications' Arcstar Global IP-VPN service as of the end of September.

By adding IP phones, the company hopes to attract more corporate clients, he said without giving a specific target number.

KDDI and other telecom firms have so far refrained from including IP phones in their IP-VPN due to sound quality problems.

NTT Communications has solved these problems by employing new technology, the spokesman said.

8.2 trillion yen revenue

NTT Corp. said Thursday its group operating revenues came to 8.2 trillion yen during the first three quarters of the 2003 business year.

NTT released quarterly business data for the first time this year.

For the full 2002 business year, the group posted operating revenues of 10.92 trillion yen.

NTT alone, which controls group firms as the holding company, scored revenues of 202.7 billion yen in the first three quarters.