New Player Eyes Japanese 3G Market

December 6, 2004 - source: BWCS

Fixed line internet access provider Softbank is hatching plans to enter the Japanese 3G market as a service provider. According to reports in the Japanese press this morning, Softbank has asked the government to grant it access to the radio frequencies used by KDDI, Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo.

Masayoshi Son, Softbank's president is quoted as saying that his company expects the government "Will allocate the bandwidth around next year and it will take about two years for us to prepare for the actual service." The company has already filed a suit in the Japanese courts to stop the government from distributing more access on 800Mhz band, which it hopes to use. Softbank argued that the plan favoured existing operators too much.

However, the ISP now appears ready to call off its lawyers if the government shows signs that it is willing to grant it access to the frequency. Apparently the company has already set aside some US$2.9 billion to spend on infrastructure and service development, should it be given the green light by the Tokyo administration.

Softbank has already made inroads on the Japanese telecoms market and is currently the second largest supplier of fixed line services with 11 million customers. NTT remains king of the castle with just under 51 million fixed line subscribers. NTT DoCoMo has already underlined its 3G ambitions by saying that it will phase out all second generation mobile phone services by 2012.