November 26, 2001

Fusion Introduces Billing via NTT East and NTT West
A First for a Type-I Telecommunications Carrier

Fusion Communications Corporation began offering its customers the option of paying their bills through NTT East and NTT West* on November 26.

Under its policy of reducing the cost of its service to the greatest extent possible to provide customers with low-cost service, Fusion has been asking its customers to pay by credit card, while charging a 200 yen fee, to cover billing and postage costs, to customers wishing to pay by bank transfer or automatic deposit. But now Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East) and Nippon Telegragh and Telephone West Corporation (NTT West) have agreed to provide a proxy billing service to Fusion. This will allow Fusion to offer customers not paying by credit card the same level of convenient service as customers paying by credit card, with no extra charge.

Fusion is the first Type-I telecommunications carrier outside the NTT Group to use the proxy billing service offered by NTT East and NTT West. With this service, call charges and other fees for Fusion appear on customers' NTT East and West bills.

From now on, customers who do not have credit cards or who do not want to pay by credit card will have the option of being billed by NTT East or NTT West, thus avoiding the confusion of receiving bills from multiple telephone companies. Furthermore, these customers will no longer be charged a fee for not paying by credit card. Thus they will enjoy the same level of service as Fusion customers paying by credit card.

Fusion plans to devise more ways to cut costs and increase the convenience of its services in the future.