TOKYO—NTT Communications, a long-distance and international business unit of the NTT Group, announced that it will launch wireless local area network (WLAN) service on 15 May at 1,600 yen (US$12.46) a month. The carrier is planning to open 1,000 “hot spots,” where users can enjoy the high-speed data communications services by the end of March 2003.
According to NTT Communications, the service, named Hot Spot, is the world’s first service based on both IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11a. Users of the service can receive either 11 Megabits per second (Mbps) service or 36 Mbps service once they bring in their PCs with a wireless LAN card to one of the hot spots. NTT Communications is targeting to win 100,000 users and have 1 billion yen (US$7.8 million) in sales by the end of March 2004.
