Post date: Oct 29, 2010 12:39:26 PM
Japanese Internet giant Softbank details plans for a new broadband super highway.
ASIA-ASIABUSINESS - The head of Japan's No.3 mobile player called Friday for a new broadband super highway, which could help to reinvigorate the world's No.3 economy.
Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said by Japan raising its e-game, the nation could again become a key global IT force.
Son called for a 5-year plan to replace all telecoms' metal cable in Japan for optic fibre, in a joint private effort that would save up to $8 billion a year.
MASAYOSHI SON, CEO, SOFTBANK CORP
"If Japan shows the example, other companies, countries, governments can revive with a new 21st Century infrastructure."
The 52-year-old Son, long seen as a maverick whose pricing and Internet business practices have changed Japan's business landscape, wants Softbank to become one of the world's 10 most valuable firms, worth $2 trillion in 30 years.
Softbank, currently worth $30 billion, partners with Yahoo Japan and China's Alibaba.com and is the only Japanese carrier to offer Apple's iPhone and iPad.
Son, with a net worth of $5.9 billion, has called for an information revolution, which the broadband super highway would help deliver.
Dan Sloan reporting.