McDonald's Net

[ultragaijin]

Softbank and McDonald's Japan are planning a high-speed Internet service. (http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;?type=internetnews&StoryID=924561)

[sukebekuro]

a good (and sobering) article by Robert Cringely on Softbank and why DSL is so cheap in Japan:

Breaking the Bank: How Softbank is Betting Everything on Bringing Broadband to Japan (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020509.html)

[ultragaijin]

Good article. And even better, great job of linking in a relevant older thread!

On of the silliest thing in Japan is the huge push for ISDN a few years back. I have to chuckle when ever I see an ISDN pay phone in Japan, and think how much poor suckers where paying for in-home ISDN service.

[GuyJean]

I have to chuckle when ever I see an ISDN pay phone in Japan, and think how much poor suckers where paying for in-home ISDN service.

Hey. I was one of those 'suckers'. Simply because DSL wasn't available. I also had a thing called 'telehodai'.

OBTW.. I have an NEC ISDN router for sale. Any buyers?

I almost laughed at a guy the other day when he told me he had ISDN and telehodai.. It's so 1999.

NTT successfully assured Japan reap no benefits from the IT bubble. They're five years too late. It's like learning Japanese in 1993 for career purposes... Hey, that's me. I guess I am a sucker.

I still think japan will benefit from the IT frenzy.. Albeit smaller than what was possible.

GJ

[ultragaijin]

:lol:

At least some good entertainment has come out of your pain.

[cstaylor]

NTT was big and fat and -- like most other big fat Japanese companies -- made its money by avoiding at all costs providing real value to its domestic customers.

[GuyJean]

Yes. You are correct..

I'm attempting to sooth my pain by laughing at my situation... Sometimes I get very bitter towards Japan. To become happy, I repeat:

- A smile is a frown turned upside down
- I'm a rock star
- Japanese breasts are getting bigger

See. I'm happy already! :D

Thanks!

GJ

[cstaylor]

... Softbank wasn't doing *anything* until the report came out that South Korea was 10 years ahead of Japan in the domestic network market.

::sigh:: I guess everyone has a particular point of motivation.