TOKYO, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Japan's SoftBank Corp. on Friday launched its 5G wireless service, on the heels of NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp. who launched their offerings earlier in the week.
In the coming few years, SoftBank Corp. said its ultrafast 5G services will be expanded to cover most of the country, but for the time being will be available in some areas of seven of Japan's 47 prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka.
With Rakuten Inc. also set to launch its 5G services in June, domestic competition is becoming fierce, with domestic mobile providers looking to capture market share through various campaigns.
SoftBank, for its part, said it will charge an additional 1,000 yen (9 U.S. dollars) per month for its 5G services, although the fee will be waived for two years for its existing and new customers through a summer campaign.
SoftBank's customers will need a 5G capable phone and plans to rollout two of its own Friday, followed by two more in the summer, it said.
The new 5G technology, capable of receiving data 100 times faster than the current 4G networks, will also be used in industry.
Japan is currently playing catch-up with more than 30 countries, including China and the United States, already using the new technology for industrial purposes, such as for autonomous driving, 5G-powered health and construction-related robots and relevant applications.
