The Japanese government has approved plans by mobile operator SoftBank Mobile (SBM) to launch a mobile network using spectrum in the 900MHz band.
In a statement, SBM said that it would now start to build the network, which will involve the installation…
The Japanese government has approved plans by mobile operator SoftBank Mobile (SBM) to launch a mobile network using spectrum in the 900MHz band.
In a statement, SBM said that it would now start to build the network, which will involve the installation of 16,000 base stations in the 2012 fiscal year, increasing to 41,000 base stations by the 2016 fiscal year. It will eventually cover 99.9% of the Japanese population.
SBM plans to launch services using the band in July 2012.
“The purpose of this application was to cope with the dramatic increase, enhance coverage, and build a robust disaster-proof communication network,” the company said.
SBM is part of Softbank Corp. As a result of the government’s spectrum ruling, the parent company increased its forecasted capex for fiscal 2011 and 2012 by Y100bn to Y1.1 trillion (US$13.5bn).
SBM competes in the Japanese mobile market with KDDI and NTT DOCOMO.