Year: <span>2003</span>
Year: 2003

NEC to Re-Enter U.S. Mobile Phone Market

Electronics conglomerate NEC Corp. said on Wednesday it would re-enter the U.S. mobile phone market this summer with the popular Internet-ready handsets that have made it Japan’s top cellphone supplier. “We’ll be supplying Internet-enabled phones from this summer, and plan to announce further details in the United States on July 22,” an NEC spokeswoman said.

Panasonic Introduces Networked Home Appliances System

Matsushita Electric, best known worldwide for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communications products, announced today that it will begin marketing of “Kurashi (Japanese for ‘home life’) Net”, a networked home appliances/housekeeping system to enhance the users’ daily living. The system, to be marketed from September 1, will enable the user to control networked home appliances, such as air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, through wireless control from the central terminal, named “Kurashi Station,” or from a mobile phone. The system also monitors security and other household conditions, alerting the users by sounding an alarm linked to the “Watchdog Safety Sensor” in cases of emergency.

DoCoMo to Market New Compact, Lightweight FOMA Videophone

NTT DoCoMo and its eight regional subsidiaries today announced that they will begin marketing the 3G N2102V videophone from July 18, 2003. The smallest in the FOMA series, the new model boasts a compact and lightweight (109g) design that is on a par with 2G handsets. It also features an enhanced mail function and longer battery life. The N2102V’s enhanced Speed photo mail function allows users to simultaneously call and send mail with attached photos taken either on-the-spot or previously saved. When enabled, the function automatically displays the e-mail address link of the person being called.

Panasonic Announces Development of A QVGA-supporting MPEG-4

Matsushita Electric, best known worldwide for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communications products, and its principle subsidiary Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd. today announced the development of the MPEG-4 multi codec LSI (MN195906), nicknamed MarvieTM3* standing for an abbreviation of “MPEG-4 Advanced Real-time VIdeo codec Engine.”

Gartner Predicts; Convergence and Collision

Gartner Predicts; Convergence and CollisionThe WWJ team spent a day at the Gartner Predicts conference held inTokyo July 3; We came, we saw, we interviewed. The conference was a five-section event covering worldwide telecom trends and what is (maybe) going to happen in Japan. Note that we didn’t catch Gartner’s top analysts during breaks between the (generally interesting) presentations: we corralled them downstairs afterwards where we could fire off the questions we really wanted to ask. Our feature interview with Dean Eyers, Gartner Group vice president and worldwide director telecommunications, commented on the Japan vs. over-seas user profile, and offers an insight on the combination of WLAN and WCDMA for handsets of the future. Full Program Run-time 6:25

NTT DoCoMo to Release Preconditions for Indirect Access

NTT DoCoMo and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that they will release preconditions for indirect access connection to the DoCoMo network to inter-exchange operators who wish to link to the DoCoMo network. Information, including a consultation schedule, will be posted on the company’s Japanese language website from July 15, 2003. On June 17, 2003, a Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications (“MPHPT”) study group established to study the setting of charges announced the results of its investigation regarding the setting of charges for both relay connections and calls made from IP phones to cell phones. This was followed by a policy issued by the MPHPT on June 25, 2003, entitled “The policy concerning the setting of charges for calls to cell phones from fixed line phones”.

Hutchison 3G HK Teams Up with NEC and Siemens to Build 3G Network

Leveraging on the success of NEC Corporation and Siemens Information and Communication Mobile (Siemens mobile) in building Hutchison’s 3G networks in the UK and Italy, Hutchison 3G HK Limited (Hutchison 3G HK) has awarded a contract to NEC and Siemens mobile for the supply of the radio network of its third generation (3G) WCDMA-based network. Hutchison 3G HK targets to launch its 3 service in August 2003.

Antenna Handles All 3 Wireless LAN Formats

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd has developed an antenna for wireless LAN (local area network) hot spots that can handle all three of the existing wireless networking standards. Wireless LAN hot spots are public places where users of notebook computers can access the Internet if their computers are equipped with wireless capabilities. As of the end of May, there were about 2,000 such hot spots in service in Japan.

Hitachi To Market Combined Solution In Japan

Hitachi’s BROADNET BOXER is Web-based groupware that provides a suite of e-mail, PIM (personal information management) and messaging capabilities — all geared toward streamlining projects involving several contributors. BROADNET BOXER offers a single source for e-mail, task and meeting management, instant messaging, secure file exchange/storage and more.