Like me, you may have noticed a recent noisy addition to Tokyo's otherwise drab urban landscape. Clad in garish red or brilliant white, teams of Yahoo BB "parasol troopers" have suddenly landed everywhere, and trying to locate a station exit or street corner free of their hawking antics is like trying to find a product Bob Sapp won't endorse.
Yahoo Japan's aggressive campaign is aimed at signing up as many broadband subscribers as possible by offering a complimentary modem and two months of free service. The results have been impressive, and the firm hit its break-even point of 2 million subscribers in February after launching the service in August 2001.
However, Yahoo's success may have less to do with simple high-speed connectivity than with a relative newcomer to broadband Internet services: IP telephony. IP "denwa," as its known in Japanese, is a technology that uses IP networks to deliver sound data to remote terminals -- in this case telephones. While there is little difference when compared to standard telephones in terms of usage and service, IP phones enjoy a distinct advantage when it comes to cost.