This is one example of government involvement in the application area. We will expand the project early next year with more multimedia applications and with private companies and end users as well. We need to explore more applications with real end users. In order to advance the entire telecommunications field, we need a good understanding of the latest technology. The regulators also need a good understanding of technology.
Regulation is a big issue.
There are regulations which simply do not match changing times or changing technology. NTT is often criticized as being too big, enjoying the lion's share of the market and not pushing the market forward. The telecommunications industry in Japan is still a little uneven in terms of competition. In Japan, only NTT maintains the nationwide telecommunications network, and there has been no full competition. We have competitors in the long-distance market, in the local loop, and in mobile telephony, but no one is trying to compete against NTT in all these markets.