TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Panel Urges Nippon Telegraph Breakup: A Japanese government-sponsored panel called on the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry to dismantle Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., the world’s largest publicly owned company. In Japan, the findings of government-sponsored studies are often presented as notice of impending shifts of policy. The report cites the need for competition as the major reason to break up the monopoly. Telephone calls between different regions of Japan are sometimes so expensive that it is cheaper to use an overseas telephone carrier and route calls through the West Coast of the United States. NTT has for several years been under pressure to break up and to open its services to competition because of discontent with its exorbitant prices. Company officials said the report overlooks their recent effort to bring prices down.