Last week Jeffrey Strain looked at how to lower your NTT Internet costs. This week he shows how your choice of Internet provider can reduce your surfing expenses.

Two Internet providers you may want to keep your eyes on are DDI' DION and Japan Telecom's ODN Internet services. Both these companies are rivals to NTT and what they have come up with is the wonderful idea of eliminating the phone charges from their Internet services, although their program fees are currently expensive when compared with competing Internet providers. DDI's DION, which is the slightly less expensive of the two, offers ten hours a month for JY3500 with no additional phone charges. You can join NTT's Time Plus for JY200 plus JY1200 for ten hours of daytime use. Although providers still need to do some price improving, a recent announcement by the government will force NTT to lower the connection fees it charges competing companies to connect to NTT lines by up to 68%. This should help drive down these companies' operating expenses and in turn the prices they charge, so it's worthwhile to keep your eyes open to see if these companies take a good idea and turn it into a competitive advantage.

Another aspect of Internet access you should keep track of is wireless Internet services. Sony announced last June it was entering the wireless Internet service business and even more recently a group consisting of Softbank, Microsoft and Tokyo Electric Power did the same. As wireless service isn't dependent on NTT phone lines, it is expected to ultimately bring high speed access to the Internet at significantly reduced rates compared to today's prices. These groups, however, are just beginning to build their networks, so it's still speculation as to when we will actually see these savings.

For those of you who live on the Internet, NTT announced it will allow unlimited phone use on a trial basis for a fixed fee beginning in late November this year in Tokyo and Osaka. Before you go shouting for joy, the monthly fee is a hefty JY8000 per month. You would have to spend more than 94 hours online each month to make this plan a better deal than Time Plus. Still, there is hope for the future. When NTT first announced this trial program three months ago, they indicated the fixed fee would be JY10,000 a month. They ended up reducing the price due to the huge public outcry (and a little government prodding) that this pricing was too expensive. In time, competition will force Internet access providers and the phone companies to charge more reasonable prices, but until then it pays to keep up on ways to keep as much of your hard-earned money in your own pockets as possible.

Reproduced by permission of Kansai Time Out.