25th April 2001

NOTIFICATION OF THE BEGINNING OF MYLINE SERVICES
and
DELAY IN PROCESSING REGISTRATIONS

MYLINE Carriers Association

MYLINE Carrier Selection Service will begin providing MYLINE services as scheduled starting 2:00 AM on Tuesday, May 1st, 2001. Applications for MYLINE services have been accepted since January 10th. However, our processing of registrations has been delayed because of the huge volume of applications at the end of March. The following measures are being undertaken to rectify the problem.

The Delay in Processing Registrations and What We Are Doing to Help Customers

1. The Delay in Processing Registrations

By the end of March, a huge number of applications -- approximately 30 million -- had been sent to the telephone companies and the MYLINE Center. MYLINE Carriers Association initially built a processing system capable of handling a maximum of 200,000 applications per day.

From the beginning of acceptance of applications through the end of January, the volume averaged about 80,000 applications per day. From February on, however, the average volume was more than 200,000 applications per day. This resulted in delays in the registration of customers' telephone company selections. The Association has undertaken emergency measures to raise the capacity of the registration processing system. The capacity of the processing system was raised in early March to handle a maximum of 300,000 applications per day. Nonetheless, the volume of applications continued to increase, rising to an average of about 400,000-500,000 per day and up to 500,000-700,000 per day in the last half of March. This volume has greatly exceeded our processing capacity and led to delays in the processing of customers' registrations.

The total number of applications received by the end of March was approximately 30 million. Of this figure, we expect to have completed processing the registration of about 22 million applications by the end of April so that those customers will be able to begin using MYLINE services from May 1st. Unfortunately, we will be unable to complete the processing of about 8 million applications by the end of April. The start of MYLINE services for those customers will be delayed until some time in May or later. We regret any inconvenience, and assure our valued customers that we are working as hard as possible to speed the resolution of this matter.

2. What We Are Doing to Help Customers

As mentioned, the registration of some customers whose applications were received by the end of March was not completed in time for the beginning of MYLINE services on May 1st. Those customers will be notified individually of the delay by the MYLINE Center via postcard or other means, as well as by newspaper advertisements. At present, we expect that those customers whose applications were received by the end of March but encountered processing delays will be able to begin using MYLINE services from early through late May, in the order their applications were received. Those customers who applied in April will be able to begin using MYLINE services from early through late June, in the order their applications were received.

3. Dialing Calls Until Registration Has Been Completed

Customers whose MYLINE registration processing procedures have been completed are being notified by post card stating that "Registration has been completed" (see the pamphlet "Guide to MYLINE Registration"). Customers who have not received such notification by post card (those customers whose applications arrived by the end of March but whose registration processing was not completed in time for the start of service on May 1st and those customers whose applications arrived from April on) are requested to first dial the telephone company's access code when they want to use the telephone company/companies they selected in their application. Those customers are requested to use this dialing procedure temporarily until their MYLINE services begin.

When users who have not applied for MYLINE registration and customers whose registration was not completed in time dial without adding the telephone company's access code, their local calls and in-prefecture long-distance calls (long-distance calls within the same prefecture) will be carried via NTT East or NTT West, and their out-of-prefecture long-distance calls (long-distance calls to different prefectures) will be carried via NTT Communications.

Telephone Companies Are Working to Speed Up the Beginning of Service

In order to launch MYLINE services nationwide on May 1st, the telephone companies need to set customer data according to the application forms and install more than 7,000 large exchange units nationwide. In addition, they need to complete work in preparation for the lowering of rates by the telephone companies on May 1st, and make preparations to handle the rapid fluctuations in traffic expected to result from the entry of new telephone companies into local calling services.

A Reminder about MYLINE PLUS

Customers who use MYLINE PLUS will hear a series of short beeps when they dial the access code of a telephone company they haven't registered or when ACR tries to connect them to a telephone company they haven't registered. These beeps do not mean that something is wrong with the telephone. They indicate that the customers are being connected to the telephone company they registered.

Change in Membership of MYLINE Carriers Association

Teleglobe Japan K.K. has decided to withdraw from the MYLINE Carriers Association before the May 1st launch of services. This brings the membership of the Association, as indicated below, to 12 telephone companies (carriers).

Members of the MYLINE Carriers Association as of April 25th, 2001
and Telephone Numbers for Inquiries