Japanese telecom giant NTT Communications indicated Wednesday that it would proceed with plans to provide metropolitan-sized wireless networks to cities and other parts of Japan.

The company tipped its plans as part of an announcement that it would be wireless mesh routers from Tropos as it deploys the networks. The telecom company said that the first such network will be at the U.S.-run Iwakuni Air Base.

"Iwakuni Air Base is the first of what we expect will be many commercial deployments, including other military bases, cities and rural parts of Japan," Mr. Satoshi Baba, director of NTT's ubiquitous service department, said in a statement.

NTT and its NTT.com division, chose the Tropos equipment after conducting field trials in Tokyo. Tropos claims that mesh networks using its equipment provide 1Mbps data throughput speeds throughout the service area. It said the air base deployment will be completed in the third quarter of this year.

NTT provided no details about the other areas in which it planned to deploy metro-scale Wi-Fi.