Mobile phone operator Softbank is urging the Japanese government to spin off incumbent NTT’s fibre-optic unit to create a new public-private company, according to local newspaper Nikkei.
Softbank president Masayoshi Son was quoted as saying that this new…
Mobile phone operator Softbank is urging the Japanese government to spin off incumbent NTT’s fibre-optic unit to create a new public-private company, according to local newspaper Nikkei.
Softbank president Masayoshi Son was quoted as saying that this new company would help achieve the government’s objective of providing every Japanese household with broadband access by 2015.
Under Son’s proposal, the government and telcos, including NTT and Softbank, would invest a total of Y500bn (US$6.14bn) to form the new entity. About Y3.1 trillion (US$38bn) would be raised from private companies to replace existing phone lines with fibre-optic cables, Nikkei wrote.
The proposal would first need to be discussed by a working group at the Ministry of Communications.
Softbank recently agreed to acquire a 100% of Willcom, an ailing Japanese operator of personal handy-phone systems (PHS).
The company could not be reached for comment before going to press.
