HP Helps Japan’s SOFTBANK MOBILE Build Online Content Store for Mobile Customers

HP solution benefits e-book shoppers – and developers

KUALA LUMPUR, June 27, 2012 — HP Enterprise Services today announced that SOFTBANK MOBILE Corporation has used an HP online storefront solution to offer its more than 29 million customers in Japan a fast, easy way to shop for, download and manage wireless services and entertainment content.

Leading communications service providers (CSPs) such as SOFTBANK MOBILE are creating content stores to help win and retain customer loyalty in a fast-changing mobile internet market.

SOFTBANK MOBILE, one of the three largest CSPs in Japan, used the HP Service Delivery Platform (SDP) Storefront Portal to create an online content store called The SOFTBANK Bookstore. Launched in December 2010, The SOFTBANK Bookstore is very popular with customers, offering them more than 372,000 files.

The company has expanded this broad variety of choices by supplementing its own offerings with those from other major third-party content providers. It further enhances customer flexibility by supporting multiple handsets and wireless devices.

“SOFTBANK MOBILE’s No. 1 goal is the best customer experience, and the SOFTBANK Bookstore is a big step toward that goal,” said Hironobu Tamba, division head, Product and Service Division, SOFTBANK MOBILE. “HP understood our business, provided a complete solution that cut time-to-market in half, and helped us with final implementation.”

The HP SDP Storefront Portal, based on HP SDP, is an integrated solution with an extensible framework that can help CSPs link SDPs to the app store business model. The solution includes a customer-facing app store and a developer portal, and has been deployed by CSPs worldwide.

“SOFTBANK MOBILE is building valuable customer loyalty with the online service delivery storefront solutions from HP,” said David Sliter, vice president and general manager, Communications, Media and Entertainment Solutions, Enterprise Services, HP. “The new HP SDP Storefront Portal also is enabling it to transform its business models with new revenue streams.”

SOFTBANK MOBILE signs LTE contract with Ericsson in Japan

Video-sharing and streaming in high definition, facilitated mobility and richer multimedia content, enhanced security and improved latency are one of the many advantages that LTE users could enjoy. And soon SOFTBANK MOBILE's subscribers will be able to share these advantages, thanks to a new LTE network contract signed by SOFTBANK MOBILE with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC). The Ericsson network will cover Japan's major cities - Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya - which together account for 70 percent of the country's total data and voice traffic. SOFTBANK MOBILE is currently Japan's third-largest mobile operator, with more than 29 million subscribers.

Ericsson will upgrade SOFTBANK MOBILE's packet core network, including systems integration and deployment of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution, and build a new LTE radio access network using RBS 6000 multi-standard base stations. This will allow SOFTBANK MOBILE users to experience the best possible networks in one of the world's most densely populated areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.

Junichi Miyakawa, Executive Vice President, Director and CTO of SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp., says: "To fulfill our customers' expectations, we continue to improve our networks. With LTE, customers get increased speed and decreased latency, while they will enjoy a wide range of new services and applications. With Ericsson's support, we will be able to offer our customers high quality LTE services."

Jan Signell, President of Ericsson Japan, says: "During 2012, many new smartphones, notebooks and tablets with LTE capabilities will be launched in Japan. This will lead to a strong increase in consumer demand for higher data speeds and throughput - a demand that SOFTBANK MOBILE will be able to meet thanks to the state-of-the-art LTE network that we will rapidly deploy.

"I am especially proud that SOFTBANK MOBILE has selected Ericsson to build this LTE network in its most dense service areas, where the consumers are most demanding."


Ericsson has signed 45 LTE/EPC contracts in 23 countries on five continents. The global LTE population coverage is 325 million, of which 215 million are covered by Ericsson networks.

LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimizing the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy a wide range of applications - such as lag-free web browsing, online gaming, social media and video conferencing - effortlessly, while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced mobile internet applications of the future.

Ericsson continues to drive open standards and has had the greatest influence on the LTE specifications released to date. Ericsson expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents related to LTE, which will make it the standard's largest single patent holder.