Japanese Internet group Softbank, which provides Japan’s Yahoo broadband service, will offer subscribers “hot spot” service at train stations and other locations starting this October, reports the AP.
Softbank will integrate its WiFi network with that of its subsidiary Japan Telecom, which it bought in 2004, to offer a single service called BB Mobile Point to be available at 820 points in Japan.
The subscription service is expected to cost as little as 315 yen (2.84 dollars) per month, in addition to the cost of Yahoo’s fixed-line broadband, which is the lowest in the market. There will be no limit on connection time or downloads. Ericsson and BB Mobile have demonstrated a seamless handover between Softbank BB’s commercial WLAN network and BB Mobile’s WCDMA 3G mobile network operating on the 1.7GHz radio frequency band.
“Yahoo! BB”, which has about five million fixed-line broadband subscribers, faces competition on the new service from Livedoor, a popular Japanese Internet portal. Additionally, telecom giant NTT, is vying for a share of Japan’s wireless Internet access market.
