Softbank sue government over 3G plans

October 14, 2004

Japanese Internet service provider Softbank has filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, seeking to block the government from allocating key high-speed bandwidth to two existing Japanese mobile phone service providers.

Chief Executive Masayoshi Son has said he was prepared take the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to court.

Softbank's hopes of becoming a 3G service provider and offering service in the 800MHz band were dented when the government announced plans to allocate the 800Mhz band to NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, two companies that already offers 3G services.

The 800MHz band is ideal for new entrants like Softbank as it would require less antennas and cost less than deploying 3G in a higher frequency band.

Softbank's entry into Japan's broadband ADSL service lead to more competition and resulted in the cheapest rates for broadband access in world. It aims to do the same in the mobile phone market.

Son has previously said both DoCoMo and KDDI were under utilising their 3G networks and the 800Mhz band would more appropriate to allocated it to new entrants.

"If this plan is adopted, it will be impossible for new operators to be allowed in the bandwidth until 2012, resulting in a continued monopoly for existing operators and high mobile phone fees for users," Softbank said in a statement.