JAPANESE

History
(former SoftBank BB Corp.)

[Notes]
  • *
    SoftBank BB Corp., SoftBank Telecom Corp. and Ymobile Corporation merged into SoftBank Mobile Corp. (currently SoftBank Corp.) on April 1, 2015.
  • *
    This page is current as of the end of March 2015.

2000 - 2010

May 2000 Established BB Technologies Corporation.
Sept. 2001 Began providing comprehensive broadband service Yahoo! BB.
Dec. 2001 Nagoya Metallic Communications Corp. introduced BB Phone across the town of Oguchi, Aichi Prefecture jointly with the SoftBank Group, Yahoo Japan Corporation and the town of Oguchi, and promoted Cyber Town Plan.
Apr. 2002 Started full-fledged experiment of Yahoo! BB Mobile, a super-high-speed wireless Internet connection service.
Began providing BB Phone, an IP phone service.
July 2002 Communication services of three companies of Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp., Nagoya Metallic Communications Corp., and Osaka Metallic Communications Corp. were integrated into Yahoo! BB.
Aug. 2002 Began providing Yahoo! BB 12M.
Sept. 2002 Number of subscribers to Yahoo! BB exceeded a million.
Nov. 2002 Started operating next generation 10Gbps backbone network between Aichi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture.
Number of users of BB Phone exceeded a million.
Dec. 2002 Began providing Yahoo! BB 12M + Wireless LAN Pack.
Jan. 2003 SoftBank BB Corp. was established by the merger of BB Technologies Corporation, SOFTBANK Networks Inc., SOFTBANK EC HOLDINGS CORP., and SOFTBANK COMMERCE CORP.
Feb. 2003 Number of subscribers to Yahoo! BB exceeded two million.
Apr. 2003 Number of users of BB Phone exceeded two million.
July 2003 Established Broadband Association to provide a forum to facilitate interaction in the business community and to promote penetration and educational campaign of broadband.
Began providing Yahoo! BB 26M.
Aug. 2003 Number of subscribers to Yahoo! BB exceeded three million.
Oct. 2003 Number of users of BB Phone exceeded three million.
Dec. 2003 Started BB Phone service using a prefix of 050.
Jan. 2004 Began providing Yahoo! BB 45M.
Extortion attempts made using Yahoo! BB customer information.
Mar. 2004 Founded Personal Information Management Council and Technology Council.
Number of subscribers to Yahoo! BB exceeded four million.
July 2004 Began offering hikari BB Phone, an IP phone service using fiber optics for corporate customers.
Sept. 2004 Began providing BB Soft, a charged streaming-based software distribution service.
Oct. 2004 Ms. Aya Ueto became a new campaign character. Started running new TVCM of Yahoo! BB.
Commenced legal action to demand suspension of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Draft Plan for IMT-2000 Frequency Allocation.
Apr. 2005 Obtained both BS7799-2:2002 and ISMS Certification (Ver.2.0) of Information security management systems at the same time.
July 2005 Network Operation Center (NOC) obtained BS7799-2:2002 and ISMS Certification (Ver.2.0).
Aug. 2005 Built a nation's largest-scale personal information management system adopting code module certified as compliant with the USA standards.
Nov. 2005 Announced gradual expansion of BB Mobile Point, public wireless LAN service by the SoftBank Group to about 2,600 outlets of McDonald's across the nation.
Dec. 2005 Divided SoftBank BB Corp. into BB TECHNOLOGY Corp. and SoftBank BB Corp. (newly established company) along with reorganization of broadband business.
Number of subscribers to Yahoo! BB exceeded five million.
Feb. 2006 Introduced an interface supporting large capacity of 40Gbps onto backbone network of Yahoo! BB.
Consolidated broadband business for corporate users into JAPAN TELECOM CO., LTD.
Began providing Yahoo! BB 50M Revo.
June 2006 Established Kitakyushu Network Operation Center (NOC).
July 2006 Permitted by Kanto Bureau of Telecommunications, Ministry of International Affairs and Communications to install equipments for high-speed power line communication for experiments.
Dec. 2006 Began offering BB Support Wide, a comprehensive PC support service for users of Yahoo! BB and SoftBank Broadband Service.
Mar. 2007 Merged BB TECHNOLOGY Corp. and SoftBank BB Corp. along with reorganization of broadband business and the merged company was named SoftBank BB Corp.
July 2007 Awarded Gold Prize of Contact Center Awards 2007 that commemorates work improvement efforts at contact centers (call centers).
June 2008 Together with SoftBank Mobile Corp., jointly began providing White Call 24, a voice call discount service that enables free domestic calling between SoftBank mobile phones and BB Phone IP phones, 24 hours a day.
July 2008 Awarded with Best Technology Award of Contact Center Awards 2008.
Dec. 2008 Launched Yahoo! BB White Plan, a flat price plan with two ceilings.
Apr. 2009 SoftBank Mobile Corp., SoftBank BB Corp., and SoftBank Telecom Corp., unified their service brand logo.
May 2010 Launched IPv6 Internet service for Yahoo! BB hikari with FLET'S.
July 2010 Won Gold award of Best Tech Innovation Internal Solution at Asia Pacific Conference of Contact Center World Award 2010.

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2011 - 2014

Sept. 2011 Won Education and Science Minister Prize in the 9th award for promotion of industry-academia-government partnership*1 for establishment of seamless structure for medical support using ICT.
Nov. 2011 Won Gold award of Technology at the World Conference of Contact Center World Award 2011.
Aug. 2012 Began providing IPv6 high-speed hybrid connection service that enables seamless IPv6/IPv4 Internet downlink speeds of up to 1Gbps.
Oct. 2012 Won Gold medal in Best use of Self-service Technology category at the World Conference of Contact Center World Award 2012.
June 2013 Launched Yahoo! BB hikari with FLET'S and Yahoo! BB hikari FLET'S Course IP phone service, White hikari Phone, jointly with SoftBank Telecom Corp.
Apr. 2014 Commerce & Service business of SoftBank BB Corp. split out to establish new company, SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp.
Dec. 2014 Began offering SoftBank Air, an unlimited Internet service made possible by simply placing a connection terminal.
[Note]
  1. *1
    English translation of the award name given by SoftBank BB Corp.