SOFTBANK Group, Masayoshi Son,Offers Educational Institutions and their Staff and Students in all parts of Japan Broadband Infrastructure Service, Other Related Services and Apparatus gratis.

Voluntary cooperation to the e-Japan Project

April 24, 2002

SOFTBANK Group (SOFTBANK CORP., Yahoo Japan Corporation and BB Technologies Corporation) and Masayoshi Son have announced that they will offer educational institutions, libraries, regional public halls, etc., broadband infrastructure service and other related services and apparatus.

The plan may be summarized as follows. Of the little less than 70,000 educational institutions (elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities), libraries and regional public halls, to those who accept the offer and have made full preparations to receive the services, the following broadband infrastructure service and other related services will be made available free for six years through prefectural governments.

(1) “Yahoo! BB Mobile”, the hyperfast wireless internet connection service
(2) “BB Phone” the broadband telephone service which uses VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology
(3) “Yahoo! BB”, the integrated broadband service
(4) Apparatus for each service

In addition, of the about 20 million students and staff of educational institutions and public facilities, those belonging to institutions and facilities participating in the offer, will be given free-of-charge a “mobile account” (authentication ID) which allows use of the hyperspeed wireless internet connection service and an e-mail address which allows the user to send and receive e-mails via the internet.

Therefore, applicable institutions and facilities can use the broadband mobile service, the broadband telephone and high-speed internet connection services all free of charge for six years.

This project will gradually be developed into a nationwide service, based on results of experimental trial service in a few prefectures that will start from the end of June.

The “Enhancement of IT human resource development” as an e-Japan Priority Policy Program set “accelerated digitization of school education” and “improvement of the IT literacy of the people” as goals.

SOFTBANK Group wishes to contribute to achievement of these goals — achieving widespread of broadband usage in educational institutions, full-scale and good use of IT in education, enhancement of skills of educational staff, etc. by making broadband-related services available free to students and staff of educational institutions and public facilities, etc.

SOFTBANK Group has been maintaining the same management philosophy through its history since its foundation in 1981 — promoting leveraging the power of the digital information revolution to make knowledge available to people no matter who or where they are and, by doing so, fostering the realization of a better life for all.

SOFTBANK Group will continue to devote ourselves to leading a digital information revolution and promoting a broadband revolution in Japan thus contributing to a more rich and comfortable life for people.

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