For the first two years, 5G on SoftBank costs nothing extra. Then it costs 1,000 yen a month.
That is the headline deal for ordinary customers in the carrier’s 5G launch, announced at a Tokyo press conference on March 5, 2020. SoftBank Corp. said its commercial 5G network would go live in Japan on March 27. The extra “5G Basic Fee” of 1,000 yen a month, not including tax (about USD 9, according to the IEEE ComSoc Technology Blog), is waived for two years for anyone who signs up by August 31, 2020, under what the company calls its “5G No Basic Fee Campaign”.
Where and on what phones
Coverage starts small. SoftBank said it would first offer service in Tokyo, Osaka, Chiba, Aichi, Hiroshima, Ishikawa and Fukuoka prefectures, with the operator aiming for more than 10,000 base stations by the end of March 2023. The longer plan is bigger. Jun Shimba, the company’s COO and head of its consumer unit, said SoftBank would convert its nationwide network of roughly 230,000 base station sites to 5G. “Telecommunications infrastructure is the most important thing with 5G,” he said, pointing to the carrier’s earlier rollout of Massive MIMO about three years before.
Four 5G handsets form the first lineup: the Sharp AQUOS R5G, the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G, the LG V60 ThinQ 5G and the OPPO Reno3 5G. The OPPO, an entry model, is exclusive to SoftBank in Japan. According to the IEEE ComSoc blog, which cited the Japan Times, two models would go on sale March 27 and two more later in the year.
Something to watch on the new network
SoftBank also introduced “5G LAB”, a content service with augmented reality, virtual reality and free-viewpoint video sections, plus a cloud gaming service based on NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW due in June. At the launch event, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ Nobuhiro Matsuda had his swing filmed at the PayPay Dome by 60 cameras, and the angles were stitched into one smooth view. Booths at 45 stores in major cities would let customers try it.
A crowded field
SoftBank was not alone. NTT Docomo and KDDI were expected to reveal their own 5G plans soon, and Rakuten, the nation’s fourth big carrier, had announced a 4G plan for 2,980 yen a month with unlimited data starting April 8, about half what the top three charge. It was also reported to be planning a 5G network for June. Pre-standard 5G networks were already running in the United States, South Korea, China and parts of Europe.
Sources
- SoftBank 5G Services to Launch on March 27 (SoftBank News)
- SoftBank to be 1st to launch 5G network service in Japan (IEEE ComSoc Technology Blog, citing Japan Times)
