Telecom minister Heizo Takenaka pledged Friday to examine Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s plan to reorganize its structure and eliminate overlapping businesses.

"The ministry has a study group in charge of competition policies, so I will have it hold deliberations specifically" on the reorganization plan, Takenaka said. "It is a matter of course that fair competition should be promoted from the perspective of (promoting the good of) the entire economy."

The remarks from the minister of internal affairs and communications come two days after the telecom giant unveiled the reorganization plan, which is designed to offer Internet and telecom services, among others, for corporate clients at competitive fares.

The plan immediately drew flak from its smaller rival Softbank Corp., which expressed concern about the behemoth regaining the telecommunications monopoly it long enjoyed as a state-owned operation. NTT was privatized in 1985.

Softbank, an Internet business investment firm, offers a high-speed Internet service and recently became a telecommunications firm after acquiring fixed-line operator Japan Telecom.

NTT, which comprises a mammoth group of telecom carriers, eyes consolidating Internet access and telecom services for large companies under NTT Communications Corp., the group's long-distance telecom service provider.

The plan to integrate group operations raised concerns that it may impinge on the spirit of the 1999 NTT law, which split its fixed-line services into NTT Communications and two local-phone units -- NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp.

NTT East, NTT West and NTT DoCoMo Inc., its mobile operator, plan to offer services combining fixed-line phones using fiber-optics and mobile phones by building an advanced IP phone network.