NTT to Merge Engineering Firms under NTT-ME in April
- Also Plans to Form Related Subsidiary in January-

The merger, in addition to upgrading overall telecommunications engineering services and improving operational efficiency, will strengthen sophisticated multimedia services using optical-fiber and system integration and outsourcing services, such as LANs/WANs design, installation, operation, maintenance and management.

The new firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT, will have capital of 16.46 billion yen. It will become a subsidiary of NTT-East following the reorganization of NTT itself in July.

NTT-ME will employ approximately 17,000 when it begins operating. Its headquarters will be located in the Urbannet Otemachi Building at 2-2-2 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo.

NTT-ME Information Xing, Inc.

In a related move, NTT-TE Kanto will establish a new wholly owned subsidiary, NTT-ME Information Xing, Inc., to design, construct and provide global information-sharing platforms, focusing on the development of network applications and content. The company through its agile and flexible business operations will contribute to the development of Japan's multimedia market.

The company will be set up in January 1999 and will officially begin operating on April 1, at which time it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the newly formed NTT-ME.

The firm will be capitalized at 11.5 billion yen and will employ about 200 people. Annual sales of about 15 billion yen are forecast within three years. The firm will be located in the same building as MTT-ME.

NTT-ME Information Xing, Inc.'s services will be as follows:

1. Global Information Sharing Platforms on the Internet

The company will provide portal site services such as media services including search engine services, ad-banners and other information to search-engine users, in addition to virtual shop services on the Internet, such as issuing/receiving orders and settling transactions. It will also provide marketing services to survey the portal site registered users with requests from corporations.

2. Corporate Information Sharing Platforms

The company will provide solutions for integrating networks, system equipment, Web applications and software for Internet-protocol networks needed to distribute information within and between corporations. The company will also provide operation, maintenance and hosting services, the latter including the maintenance and operation of servers as well as software located at the company 's premise and leased to customers, for providing network and application services.

Examples of these services are:

Based on the server technologies for constructing the Intranet and the extranet,

-	Security management (authentication, encryption, electronic signature and digital watermarking)
-	Information archiving (management, update and control of intra-company databases)
-	Intra-company information search (private use of search engine "goo", developed by NTT).

3. Video Solutions

The company also plans to provide solutions for video-based content.