SOFTBANK's son Masayoshi says that iPad for Japan is a SIM lock version

ByDanny Choo

When the reservation began on May 10,It became clear that it is a SIM lock version that can be used only with SOFTBANK MOBILE, resulting in controversyApple tablet terminal "iPad", but what a big CEO of AppleSteve Jobs made a surprising answer to the inquiry "SIM lock on the iPad for Japan is not applied"By doing so, it resulted in extreme confusion.

However, SOFTBANK's Masayoshi Son makes clear that it is a SIM lock version for the iPad for Japan.

Details are as below.
The reason for SIM lock on iPad is "Weapons of fight can not be handed over" President Son is a net program (1/2 pages) - Sankei Biz (Sankei Biz)

According to reports by Sankei Shimbun, Softbank Corp. has reached the world's highest level with the theme of "Light Way" concept, which the General Affairs Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi will spread 100% of broadband communication lines to all domestic 49 million households by 2015 Journalists who appeal to the importance of promoting policies that make easy-to-use services and nets directly connected to daily life become social infrastructure for people's lives, not spreading broadbandMr. Toshiyasu SasakiAnd Mr. Masayoshi Son to do live broadcasting in a dialogue form from Upload from 20 o'clock May 13 th to 1 o'clock on 14 th.

Masayoshi Son


Mr. Toshiyasu Sasaki


Interview situation


On the program, Mr. Masayoshi Son assumes the reason for applying its own SIM lock to the "iPad" scheduled to be released on the 28th, SOFTBANK assigns the 800 MHz band for mobile phones from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, unlike competitors such as NTT docomo and KDDI He said that he is "not at all fair competitive environment," and said, "Because there is a handicap, we will fight at the cutting edge of a new civilization or a different way."

In the meantime, the company is planning to sell smartphones and multifunctional information terminals adopting Google's mobile phone OS "Android" as a SIM free terminal in the future, but when the iPad is sold as a SIM free terminal As for "I can not promise" I am avoiding expressions.

The content of the dialogue has been transcribed with the following link. (It is difficult to access as of 12:10 on May 14th)

【Transcript .com】 grandchild vs Sasaki interview "Do you need the way of light?" 1 grandson Masayoshi presentation | transcript .com :: Ustream / Nico student / PodCast

By the way, the mobile phone business that SoftBank Mobile currently handles has been deployed in Japan onceThose that acquired vodafone's mobile phone business in 2006In addition to going back to Japan Telecom 's "J - PHONE", it was considering that SOFTBANK will newly enter the mobile phone business on its own before the acquisition was decided.

Softbank wanted to allocate the 800 MHz band that radio waves are easy to pass and it is said that the maintenance cost of the area can be suppressed when newly entering the mobile phone business, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI As being preferentially allocated toAdministrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2004It seems that assigning the 800 MHz band is a wish for the company.

However, since NTT DoCoMo needs to prevent radio waves from interfering between base stations and radio waves in order to avoid concentrating access from users to one base station, base stations in the 800 MHz band in urban areas As for the base station in the 2 GHz band, as well as setting up the base stations finely,Softbank's claim that the 800 MHz band is advantageous is not a big difference ", And also on the number of base stations in the 2 GHz band maintained by SOFTBANK,It is pointed out that it is less than the number of base stations in the 2 GHz band maintained by NTT DoCoMoAnd the opinions of both parties are conflicting.

In other words, Mr. Masayoshi Son's argument that "the current situation where the 800 MHz band is not allocated is not a fair competitive environment, and therefore imposes SIM lock on the iPad for that purpose"NTT DoCoMo was considering providing communication services to the iPadIt seems that there is no objection from content, but will NTT DoCoMo take some action?Steve Jobs who answered "not having SIM lock on" about models for JapanIt is a place to worry about the real intention of.