Microsoft Corp has teamed up with Japanese internet investment firm Softbank Corp and Tokyo Electric Power Co to launch a low-cost wireless internet service in Tokyo. The three partners will establish a joint venture company this month and plan to launch the new service by the middle of next year.
The venture will emulate Sony Corp, which also recently announced its own wireless internet service, by using wireless links to connect with customers so bypassing the high-cost local access lines of monopoly NTT East Corp, a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
Japanese press reports said the main network is likely to be based on a wireless network being deployed by Tokyo Telecommunications Network Inc, an affiliate of TEPCO, while antennas for the service will be mounted on TEPCO’s electricity poles.
Domestic internet users are limited to NTT’s ISDN or analog dial-up network for a low-cost internet connection although an ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) network from NTT will be operational from later this year.
The reports say that the new service will be priced around 5,000 yen ($43) per month, or half the proposed price of a new full-time internet connection being talked about by NTT.
