Professor Aoyama's major expertise is in the
field everyone refers to as the next-generation communication infrastructure.
That is, optical fiber networks and other broadband transmission
systems that can provide high-speed and high-volume communication.
The project to lay the foundations of a high-speed network within
five years, the e-Japan five-year plan, was launched in 2001. This
is expected to bring great benefits to the Japanese economy. I
wonder how you see things developing?
Looking at it from the business perspective,
the situation has become very severe. Some people are calling it
a 'telecomms winter'. In America, the IT bubble burst and this
has driven many communications companies and ISPs (Internet service
providers) into bankruptcy. Financial crises have also afflicted
communications companies in Great Britain, France, and Germany.
Here in Japan, too, the situation is rather severe especially at
NTT, and the only bright spot has been the mobile phone business.
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How fast is broadband transmission?
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Even so, the volume of information traffic
on the Internet has been rapidly expanding.
Yes, high-speed Internet services, which we
generally call broadband, have made rapid advances in Japan. It
has been estimated that people in more than 5 million households
have access to ADSL or CATV lines that provide speeds ranging from
a minimum of 500 kbps up to 8 Mbps. Although the number of users
is still small, even FTTH (fiber to the home), billed as the ultimate
Internet access method, now has around 80,000 subscribers. In an
attempt to help revive Japanese industries, which have been hit
hard since the collapse of the bubble economy, the government has
proceeded with its e-Japan scheme based on IT. It has mapped out
measures to lay an infrastructural foundation with the aim of providing
30 million households with high-speed (including ADSL) Internet
access and 10 million households with FTTH by the end of 2005.
In most large urban areas, optical cables have already been laid underground.
A network infrastructure is now in place so that users who apply for FTTH can
be connected to the service promptly by extending a fiber from the main cable
via an utility pole to their residence.
However, it is true that there are still only
80,000 subscribers at this time.
To what extent do you think the user base will expand given the status of the
fiber network infrastructure in large cities?
I can see it spreading in larger metropolitan
areas such as Tokyo and Osaka down to cities where prefectural
offices are located. NTT and other telecommunications companies,
electric power companies, and local self-governing bodies are also
actively working to lay fiber cables in underground utility tunnels.
Along with the spread of the fiber infrastructure, Yusen Broad
Networks and other venture companies have recently come on the
scene. At the same time, competition has reduced joining fees and
monthly charges. Japan now has the cheapest broadband tariffs in
the world. People complained that high usage charges delayed the
uptake of the Internet in Japan, but that is simply not true of
broadband. Now the situation is such that, in Japan, you can use
the Internet at the cheapest fixed monthly charge in the world.
I too am very surprised at the way prices
have been falling rapidly. But how many people are generally aware
of this?
Well, that's probably true. The question is
what we can expect from 100 Mbps high-speed services. Isn't ADSL
fast enough? You know, 8 Mbps is probably just about right for
browsing the web and, if motion pictures are compressed by MPEG
or other methods, it's possible to watch movies with the same quality
as video.
So, in the end, motion picture services are
the key, aren't they? Once you can view video easily without stress,
there's no going back.
With 100 Mbps FTTH, you could see Hi-Vision
aired in real time. It is becoming more and more important to provide
high-quality content that can fully exploit this high-speed communication
infrastructure.
Absolutely, that is crucial. There is another
thing: whether or not the owners of content can supply it over
a network without concerns. We still have to deal with authentication
and fee collection - essential to any fee-paying system - security
for copyright protection, and other issues. The biggest challenge
here is to establish a system by which an owner who has interesting
and useful content can supply this content to a provider and secure
a return on investment. |
