SUMMARY

Japan is aggressively developing all the enabling technologies, subsystems, and systems for broadband telecommunications, including fiber-to-the-home, fiber-to-the-curb, and hybrid fiber/coax. Japanese electronics companies all appear to have a long-term, evolutionary view, giving considerable weight to technologies that will make them most competitive in the 21st century. Because of NTT's coordinating influence on the market, but also recently because of U.S. directions in cable television network products, the JTEC panel finds that similar if not identical products, at least with regard to their performance, are being developed in parallel by multiple suppliers.

Table 2.1 summarizes the activities, by manufacturer, in each of the areas just discussed. Table 2.2 shows the panel's evaluations of the U.S. position vis-à-vis the Japanese position in these technologies, in some cases based only on very limited exposure during the study team's visits.

Table 2.1
Activities, by Manufacturer, of Japanese Components and Systems
Supporting Telecommunications, Cable Television, and Data-Link Systems

Table 2.2
Relative Position of Japanese Research, Manufacturing, and Development in Activities Related to Telecommunications, Cable-Television, and Data-Link Systems