Other cable operators in Japan are being approached about affiliation and investments in the venture. Total upgrade costs and content development for the service has been estimated at more than 5 billion yen. Eleven percent of Japanese households subscribe to an Internet or online service. Terayon looks to benefit from the deal since Sumitomo serves as the vendor's Japanese distributor. Other investors were not disclosed.
Customer complaints continue to break through to news outlets.
Subscribers have frequently complained about poor customer service characterized by lengthy waits on-hold and incompetent CSRs, and sporadic poor performance of the service. Dialup users that are anxious to get a cable modem are complaining about changing schedules in service availability and unreasonable gaps between the time the service is ordered to the time a cable modem can be installed. In some cases, poles have to be replaced because they cannot handle the extra weight of additional wiring. One report indicated that a backlog of 90,000 permits existed at one time. Another report suggests that installation lead times have grown to 8 weeks in some areas.