Japan’s Softbank (formerly Vodafone Japan) also owns an ISP (Yahoo Japan) and bought Japan Telecom in 2006. They are the No.1 supplier for ADSL broadband services in Japan. They use 3G UMTS technology (i.e. part of the GSM family), but there is no GSM network operator in Japan. Visitors can roam onto Softbank's network if they have a 2G/3G capable phone and a subscription with a GSM network operator elsewhere.

Softbank setup a femtocell trial in 2007 to evaluate the currently available femtocell products, for which all the current vendors participated. They were granted a test licence from the regulator for 6 months of tests. Read the news release.

Commmercial launch was originally slated for October 2008, but in September 2008 was rescheduled for January 2009. This was later deferred indefinitely. In November 2008, the analyst Ovum reported that Softbank clarified its launch of femtocells were intended for voice in poor coverage areas only. The operator believes that interference issues with macrocells remain a technical block, and therefore femtocells are still 2 to 3 years away from solving capacity problems.

Softbank further explained their views in February 2009:

• They initially required femtocells to solve coverage issues, especially for their enterprise customers with rural branch offices
• They believe there are still cell-to-cell interference issues with the macrocelular network
• Softbank believe there are lots of good ideas which could form the basis for a solution, but these may take 2-3 years to be realised

Another of the key concerns is the regulatory requirement in Japan for all cellsites (including femtocells) to be installed by a trained technician.  Softbank and other Japanese operators are said to be pressing the regulator to relax this restriction and are confident this will be achieved before launch.

The operator chose an IMS femtocell architecture, which is relatively uncommon. Japanese industry has been promoting IMS alongside LTE, the next generation of radio interfaces for mobile phone systems. It also fits in more closely with their broadband DSL and ISP assets.

The contract was awarded to NEC , with femtocells supplied by Ubiquisys.

The Softbank CEO further outlined their views in November 2009, highlighting that LTE on its own would not be enought to satisfy mobile broadband capacity where 50% of data usage is in the home during peak periods. Instead, he believes WiFi has a huge role to play.

Softbank then made a bold move, apparently driven by their senior management, to promote and supply femtocells more proactively. An offer of free femtocells and a free dedicated DSL line was given to any customer claiming poor indoor coverage in their home or retail outlet. This was partly intended to dramatically rebalance the perception of poor coverage in some parts of the country. Softbank had around 98% population coverage compared with over 99% for their larger competitors. The offer had to be extended by popular demand.

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