Softbank BB Implements Cisco Catalys 6500

Cisco Systems®, Inc. (www.cisco.com), today announced that Softbank BB Corporation has implemented the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 intelligent multilayer modular switches to support the deployment of new services in Japan offered under the "Yahoo! BB" brand name.

Softbank BB is one of Japan's largest broadband service providers with more than 4.6 million subscribers. Under the Yahoo!BB brand, it offers such services as Internet connectivity, IP telephony, public wireless LAN services, video-on-demand, and online gaming.

The Catalyst 6500 switch with the Supervisor 720 was installed at Softbank's points of presence (PoPs) to enable cost-effective, high performance Ethernet access aggregation and advanced network services such as multicasting.

"As a leading broadband content and services provider, we continue to focus on delivering profitable, innovative services with the highest quality and reliability to bring the broadband revolution to Japan. We are impressed with the Catalyst 6500 features and performance, which clearly met our rigorous requirements for next generation access infrastructure for deploying differentiated broadband services to our rapidly growing subscriber base," said Mr. Keiichi Makizono, general manager of the Technology Division for Softbank BB.

Softbank BB is the largest company in the Softbank Group and was established in January 2003 through the merger of BB Technology Corporation, Softbank Networks Inc., Softbank EC Holdings and Softbank Commerce Corporation.