Softbank Corp, Japan's third-largest mobile phone company, yesterday said that it would acquire its smaller rival, eAccess, for about ¥180 billion ($2.3 billion) in stock.

Softbank will pay 16.74 of its shares for each share of eAccess, valuing the Tokyo-based company's at ¥52,000 ($659), more than three times eAccess closing price of ¥15,070 ($191) on 28 September.

Justifying the huge premium, Softbank's president Masayoshi Son told reporters in Tokyo that the company is not overpaying for eAccess looking at its network infrastructure assets, number of subscribers and synergies.

With EAccess's bandwith and its network for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) data transmission, Softbank will be able to give its smartphones subscriber's higher speed to stream video and surf the Internet.

Softbank, which introduced Apple in Japan, will use eAccess's spectrum for its high-speed network for the new iPhone 5, which supports the LTE technology.

The deal will give increase Softbank's LTE base stations by 50 per cent, to an estimated 30,000 by March.

The proposed acquisition will bring Softbank closer to overtaking KDDICorp, Japan's second-largest mobile carrier, which ended Softbank's monopoly last year as iPhone's only seller in Japan.

The addition of eAccess's 4.2 million subscribers would give Softbank a total of 34.3 million users, compared to more than KDDI's 36 million customer base, but far below market leader NTT Docomo, which has 60.5 million users.

NTT Docomo is the only major Japanese mobile carrier that does not offer the iPhone.

Softbank will provide eAccess with access to its 900 MHz network, which will allow eAccess to provide the voice and data communications service in broader areas, while eAccess will provide Softbank with access to its 1.7 GHz FDD LTE network for the data communications service, which will allow Softbank to use both 2.1 GHz and 1.7 GHz for its FDD LTE service.

Post acquisition, Softbank said that eAccess will be converted into a wholly owned unit and will be delisted on 25 February and eAccess will continue to operate the mobile communications business under the ''EMOBILE'' brand.