For a customer already paying SoftBank for a 4G plan, the price of stepping into 5G in Japan came down to one line: JPY 1,000 a month. Better still, the first two years were free under a launch campaign that runs until August.
That was the offer SoftBank put on the table in early March 2020, when it announced that its 5G service would go live on 27 March. At the time of the announcement, The Japan Times reported, it would have made SoftBank the first operator in Japan to offer 5G.
Where it works, and on what phones
Coverage was going to be patchy. SoftBank planned to switch on the service in Tokyo, Osaka, Chiba, Aichi, Hiroshima, Ishikawa and Fukuoka prefectures from 31 March. The operator said it intended to build more than 10,000 base stations by the end of March 2023, so most of the country would be waiting for years.
Handsets were thin on the ground too. SoftBank was to start selling two 5G-enabled smartphones on 27 March and add two more later in the year, with models promised from Sharp, ZTE, Oppo and LG. Sharp had shown off its Aquos R5G only a few weeks earlier, on 17 February. Neither SoftBank nor Docomo was selling an iPhone, which Light Reading noted accounted for nearly two-thirds of Japanese smartphone sales the year before.
Docomo steps in
SoftBank did not get its moment alone. Light Reading called it the least surprising move of the year when NTT Docomo, the country’s largest carrier, set its own launch for the Wednesday of the following week, 25 March, two days ahead of SoftBank. Docomo’s start looked a little rushed, with only 500 active base stations at around 150 locations. It promised to reach all 47 prefectures by June and lift peak download speeds from 3.4 Gbit/s to 4.1 Gbit/s.
The price comparison favoured SoftBank. Docomo priced a 100GB plan at 5,480 yen a month, plus a pay-as-you-go option at JPY3,980 for 7GB. SoftBank’s 100GB 5G package was the JPY 1,000 add-on to a 4G plan that cost JPY6,500 for 50GB. Docomo’s stock rose 3.52% on the Tokyo exchange after its announcement. KDDI, the number-two carrier, was expected to unveil its plans shortly.
Rakuten waiting in the wings
A newcomer was also circling. Rakuten Mobile, a competitor, said it would start 4G in April and move to 5G in the summer, aiming for nationwide coverage by March 2021.
