NEC, seven others to link
NEC Corp's Biglobe, Fujitsu Ltd's Nifty Corp and six other Japanese Internet-service providers agreed to form an alliance to offer Internet-based phone services, the Mainichi newspaper reported. The companies, including Sony Corp's So-net and two Internet services operated by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp, will let their customers call each other for free over the network to compete against a similar service offered by Softbank Corp's Yahoo BB high-speed Internet service, the report said, without citing anyone.