Japan’s Softbank today said it will close down its 2G network by the end of March 2010 in an effort to focus on 3G services, reports Dow Jones Newswires. Although the smallest of the country’s three major mobile operators with approximately 19 million subscribers according to Wireless Intelligence, Softbank is one of Japan’s fastest growing operators, with a total year-on-year connection growth rate of 16.25 percent. This dwarfs market-leader NTT DoCoMo’s growth rate (1.4 percent), as well as second-placed KDDI (6 percent). Softbank is believed to have less than 4 million subscribers on its second-generation PDC network, a number which is falling fast, whilst its 3G network has already attracted over 15 million customers and has a year-on-year connection growth rate of 66 percent.

The move follows reports in March that rival DoCoMo will stop taking orders for its second-generation ‘mova’ mobile service once it has exhausted its current stock of 2G handsets. It is believed that handset makers stopped supplying mova models to the operator at the end of last year and although DoCoMo intends to continue operating the 2G network at least in the short-term, it is attempting to migrate users onto its high-speed FOMA 3G network.