R&D Activities | SOFTBANK CORP.

R&D expenditures during fiscal 2009 totaled 665 million yen.

The major portion of R&D activities took place at the Mobile Communications, Broadband Infrastructure, and Fixed-line Telecommunications segments. The main items were as follows:

Mobile Communications

Research related to wireless base stations and ancillary equipment to improve the wireless telecommunications network.
Research and development related to mobile phone handset design and ancillary equipment.
Research into array antennae and space-time synthesis technologies.
Development of 1.5GHz-bandwidth wireless equipment and feasibility studies related to expansion of the wireless network.
Research related to LTE^*1 wireless access technologies and effective wave frequency utilization rates.
Traffic dimensioning and verification testing for Femtocells and FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence.)
Research related to transmission characteristics in crowded urban areas.
Modeling and traffic estimation for handset purchases.

[Note]

*1 Long Term Evolution: A high-speed data transmission standard for mobile phones, representing a further advance beyond the W-CDMA format, HSDPA high-speed data transmission technology currently used by the Group.

Broadband Infrastructure

Research related to next-generation networks.
Research related to technologies and delivery formats for next-generation image distribution.
Comprehensive research related to FTTH services, etc.
Research related to services and applications that use artificial intelligence.

Fixed-line Telecommunications

R&D required for realization of ubiquitous society.
R&D related to ultra high-speed optical transmission technologies and technologies for effective wavelength use.
Development of IRIS next-generation, ICT platform service concept based on service-network cooperation (SNC), and FMC.

[Note]