February 9, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Domestic traffic on corporate LANs will rise 140 percent on an annual basis through October 1998, according to a survey by Nikkei Market Access.

That is because corporate investment in PC network-related equipment is projected to grow 44 percent in fiscal 1998 ending September 1998, compared with the previous year's 70 percent rise.

Nikkei Market Access predicts that companies will face far more serious problems with operating their in-house LANs.

The survey was conducted between October and November 1997, covering 3,800 major companies that have introduced a LAN or an in-house information system. (See chart.) Among them are about 2,000 listed and 1,100 unlisted firms, plus roughly 700 foreign capitals. The questionnaire had valid responses from 799 companies.

Including multiple answers, 70 percent of the companies polled said that increases in both usage of PCs among employees and PC purchases helped boost LAN traffic in the year through October 1997. Sixty percent blamed it on e-mail exchanges, while only 30 percent pointed to the Internet, the survey said.

About 10 percent of those polled referred to the use of personal digital assistants as one element in increased traffic, but the rate is 20 percent for foreign-affiliated companies. In the survey, foreign-affiliated companies were defined as those having 25 percent of their capital from nonresident companies. Listed and unlisted companies included those with less than 25 percent of their capital held by nonresidents.

Details of the survey will be available to the subscribers of Nikkei Market Access on its Web site at Nikkei Market Access or a Nikkei Market Access report, both provided in Japanese language only.

Chart: One-year traffic increase rates stores 1997s results of traffic increase rates (%) are in the year through October 1997 and 1998s are projections for traffic increase rates (%) in the year through October 1998.

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(Nikkei Market Access)