Might SCKT be involved in this:
(COMTEX) B: Softbank, Tepco, Microsoft forming wireless Internet vent
B: Softbank, Tepco, Microsoft forming wireless Internet venture
TOKYO, Aug 11, 1999 (AP Worldstream via COMTEX) -- Japan's Softbank
Corp., Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Microsoft Corp. of the United
States are setting up a joint venture offering a low-cost, wireless
Internet connection service, they announced Wednesday.
Customers will be able to connect to the Internet using wireless
transmitters that communicate with relay base stations installed on
utility poles owned by Tokyo Electric Power, the world's largest
electric power company.
They will set up the joint venture in Tokyo in September and begin
offering the service in the summer of 2000, starting in the Tokyo
region.
The high cost of local calls has hindered Internet use in Japan.
The new company, as yet unnamed, will be capitalized at 6 billion yen
(dlrs 52.3 million), with Softbank, Tepco and Microsoft each taking a
31 percent stake.
Internet service provider Yahoo Japan Corp. will hold a 5 percent
stake.
The companies did not say who would hold the remaining 2 percent.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press, All rights reserved.
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