he order of $500. Yahoo BB management realised these obstacles and set out on an aggressive marketing campaign. Their new ADSL service offered transmission rates of 12 Mbps in the down- stream, and was offered at $25 a month. Moreover, modems were given away for free with 2-year contract sign-ups. It was estimated that the cost of each new subscriber acquisition was in the order of $600. The marketing campaign was greatly successful. Within 3 months Yahoo BB was the market leader, and within 14 months revenues overtook costs. The success of Yahoo BB empowered Softbank K.K. to fully enter the telecommunications market and acquire Vodafone Japan. Softbank has successfully grown these businesses and in 2013 acquired Sprint, the third largest mobile operator in the United States [9, 10, 11]. Case Study Questions What were the obstacles to the growth of ADSL services in Japan? What were the government policies in lowering these obstacles? Softbank was a software development company. Why do you think it entered the ISP market (through Yahoo BB)? Which layers do you see Yahoo BB play in the broadband telecommunications ecosystem? In 2005 Softbank bought a baseball franchise in Japan. How do you see this move fits with its overall telecommunications strategy? Coaxial Cable Systems Usage of coaxial cable to deliver TV signals to houses dates back to the late 1940s in the United States. TV signal can be broadcast through TV tower antennas and received over the air. However, TV reception in some areas can be weak due to physical obstacles blocking the signals. Cables were initially used to fill in TV signal coverage, and by entrepreneurial opera- tors in bringing signals to areas where coverage was yet to be achieved. Cable TV service later on grew because the number of terrestrial broadcast channels was limited due to frequency spectrum restrictions and new channels could only be received via cable. By 2006 it is reported Fixed Broadband Communications Systems that some 58% of American household had basic access to cable T