NTT held its 39th annual general meeting on Thursday, June 20th, and answered questions from shareholders.

One shareholder asked about standardization strategies for IOWN and 6G, which NTT is currently researching and developing.

Vice President Takehiko Kawazoe responded, “We launched the IOWN Global Forum in 2020 and are currently collaborating with over 140 companies. This organization is the so-called de facto standard. De jure standardization will be important to spread IOWN around the world. Seizo Onoue, a former NTT employee, will be the first Japanese person to become Director-General of the ITU’s Telecommunications Standardization Bureau, so we would like to work with him to spread IOWN around the world”.

Another shareholder asked whether, if the company is going to focus on global expansion, it would be better to change its name from “Nippon Telegraph and Telephone” to the familiar “NTT.”

In response, Public Relations Director Sekine Makiko said, “At present, we have not decided whether to change the company name, but we would like to move forward after considering what will contribute to our brand”.
Some shareholders also asked the outside directors what NTT’s biggest challenge was.
Outside director Watanabe Koichiro replied, “NTT is a larger company than we could have imagined, with great potential and becoming a company with a promising future. I think the biggest challenge at present is whether it can grow not only domestically but also globally, toward the creation of new value”.

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI