The rating on Nippon Telegraph&Telephone Corp. reflects the consolidated business and financial strength of its group of companies. The rating also takes into account pressures in the traditional local fixed-line business; the possibility that the group's strength will be eroded by future reorganization; and the group's efforts to implement structural reforms, including reducing labor costs. NTT maintains a very strong position in Japan's telecommunications market, controlling more than 92% of the local fixed-line market and 55% of the long-distance fixed-line market. Its majority-owned wireless telephone subsidiary, NTT DoCoMo Inc., accounts for nearly 60% of cellular subscribers in Japan. The NTT group's far-leading position in the Japanese telecommunications industry is not expected to be seriously threatened in the near
