• Japan's Softbank Mobile invests in its HSPA Evolution network to boost quality and capacity for smartphone and tablet users
• Rapid growth in data usage boosts Softbank Mobile's revenues
• Operator upgrades its radio access network for Japan's three largest cities
• The tool, being developed by Ericsson Nikola Tesla experts, will provide the optimum integration of new base stations

Leading Japanese operator Softbank Mobile invests in capacity to ensure a high-quality user experience by upgrading its HSPA radio access network with Ericsson's (NASDAQ: ERIC) latest radio base station solution, RBS 6000. The upgrade will bring major benefits to the data-hungry users of smartphones and tablet computers who are the key contributors to the operator's financial success. The tool, being developed by Ericsson Nikola Tesla experts, will mean considerable savings of time in the given job. This means that application of this tool will provide the optimum integration of new base stations into the network of the Japanese operator Softbank.

Digitally savvy Japanese are using mobile data to stay in touch, including always-connected social network services and popular "moba-gee" mobile games over those social networks. Softbank Mobile is determined to maintain customer satisfaction for high-capacity data subscribers as the company now earns more from data than from voice services.

Under the contract, Ericsson is deploying and integrating new radio base stations for the Tomeihan area which includes Japan's biggest cities: Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. This area covers 50 percent of the Japanese population and represents one of the densest areas in the world in terms of data traffic usage. The upgrade project has already begun, and is due to be largely completed by the end of the financial year 2010, which ends on March 31, 2011.

Communications Ericsson Nikola Tesla