SoftBank’s Plans: Faster Wireless For Less

Amid widespread concerns that the impending Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) merger may not benefit consumers, SoftBank Corp. (TYO: 9984) CEO Masayoshi Son said that his company, which bought Sprint last year for $22 billion, plans to increase wireless Internet speeds in the U.S. while decreasing their costs.

Son announced the company’s intentions at an annual shareholder meeting on Friday.

“I’m really determined to bring about better service at a lower price in the United States,” Son said. “We could inspire other carriers in the United States.”

Setting its sights stateside would help SoftBank’s quest to capture more subscribers worldwide, as more Japanese citizens leave their home country. Though SoftBank is the third-largest mobile carrier in Japan, it struggles with the country’s heavy competition for wireless subscribers. Customers are also now favoring cheaper calling plans.

By merging Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S., SoftBank hopes the combined network will be on par with those of competitors like AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Comcast Corp (NASDAQ: CMCSA), the dominant sources for Internet services in the U.S.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at the network’s Un-carrier 5.0 press event on Thursday evening that T-Mobile was not a telecommunications company but rather a mobile Internet company. He claims that T-Mobile customers use the most data of all U.S. carriers and that T-Mobile has the fastest 4G LTE network in the nation.

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