Other Japanese service providers and Internet analysts, however, countered that claim. It won't be the huge success it was in the States. Their biggest problem is that the telephones here are metered. NTT, Japan's monopoly phone company, assesses users per-minute charges for local calls, and that could limit the amount of time Japanese customers spend online. Roger Boisvert, head of Global Online, a leading Internet service provider, said he expected AOL to create the same dissatisfaction in Japan it did in America.
People here expect a certain quality of service.
While AOL is significantly cheaper than Niftyserve, Nifty's Japanese service, Okubi said Nifty would not compete on price. AOL Japan will provide 30 access points across Japan for members to hook up to the AOL network. And unlike Nifty, which does not operate on Sundays, AOL Japan will operate 24 hours every day. E.W. Scripps Publications , All Rights Reserved. Site users are subject to our User Agreement .