Japan's Softbank Corp will launch a Internet Protocol (IP) phone service using a fibre-optic network in August, aiming to lure customers away from rival Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT), the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.
Softbank subscribers, including the 5 million customers of its "BB Phone" IP phone service provided over an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) network, will be able to make calls for free after a small monthly charge, the newspaper said.
Softbank believes offering IP phone service over both ASDL and fibre-optic networks will help it better compete with NTT, which is investing aggressively to quadruple users of its fibre-optic network to 30 million by 2010.
No one at Softbank could be reached for comment. Softbank will look to compete on price. While subscribers to its fibre-optic service will be able to speak to each other free of charge, customers of NTT's service are levied a fee for each call, the Nikkei said.