Tepco to Double Fiber Optic Network

TOKYO, Oct. 27 -- Tokyo Electric Power Co., the world's largest private electric power company, will spend up to 70 billion yen (642 million dollars) to double the size of its optic fiber network, according to the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei Net).

The report said the company aims to give industry leader NTT East Corp., an arm of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., a run for its money by aggressively investing in telecommunications.

Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, currently extends its network to four million households in central Tokyo and the adjacent cities of Mitaka and Musashino. Tepco intends to invest 10 billion yen in the next fiscal year to expand its network to cover other adjacent cities, such as Chiba, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Hiratsuka and Saitama, Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

The firm plans to cover eight million households by 2008, when its total investment in the project would reach around 70 billion yen, the newspaper said. Tepco is currently estimated to have fewer than 20,000 subscribers, compared with the more than 240,000 subscribers served by NTT East. NTT East is capable of providing service to 20 million households.

For more information, visit: www.tepco.co.jp/index-e.html