PlayStation 2 Users To Be Offered High-Speed Web AccessPlayStation 2 Users To Be Offered High-Speed Web Access

Sony Corp. is teaming up with Yahoo Japan and Softbank Corp. to offer users of its PlayStation 2 game console access to the Internet via high-speed broadband connections. The new services would be offered in spring 2002.

New services offered on PlayStation 2 include the ability to access online auctions and chat with other game players using a new Internet phone service from Yahoo and Softbank revealed earlier this week. The phone service is only available to subscribers of the asymmetric-digital-subscriber-line service called Yahoo BB that Yahoo and Softbank launched last September.

The deal comes on the heels of a recent agreement between Sony and Japan telecommunications company NTT Corp. to deliver new online game services that run on high-speed broadband networks by next spring.