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

Year: 2003

Vodafone Hung Up on Nokia for 3G

Vodafone has placed orders for millions of next generation mobile phones for its new 3G services with Japanese manufacturers, in a snub to Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile manufacturer. According to a senior Vodafone executive, Nokia did not yet have handheld devices with the functions he wanted. “Nokia is developing an elaborate system,” he said. “But they are behind the Japanese.” He would not name the Japanese recipients of the orders, claiming commercial sensitivity.

DoCoMo and COSMOTE Commence Partnership for i-mode in Greece

NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s leading mobile communications provider, and COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications S.A., the leading mobile operator in Greece, announce today that they have formed an exclusive strategic partnership agreement under which DoCoMo is licensing COSMOTE to launch i-modeｮ, the world’s most popular mobile service, in Greece. The two leading mobile operators have signed today an agreement, under which COSMOTE will offer its i-mode service over its 2.5G GPRS network and 3G UMTS network, with DoCoMo providing its know-how, technology and patents.

SK Telecom Under Fire

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s top mobile carrier, may be named an “unreliable listed company” after it missed the deadline for issuing a public notice. On the evening of Oct. 31, SK Telecom, the second most valuable stock on the Seoul bourse, quietly announced it had been sued by its rival KTF Co. for allegedly defaming the rival’s corporate integrity.

DoCoMo Announces First Half Financials

DoCoMo Announces First Half FinancialsMarket leading NTT DoCoMo’s consolidated financial results for the six months ending Sept. 30th were announced last week at this press conference in Tokyo. Operating revenues were up 6.4% while operating income was down 7.8% with earnings per share 3.9% lower when compared to the same period last year. Dr. Kenji Tachikawa, President and CEO stated “During the first six months of fiscal year ending March 31, 2004, the Japanese cellular phone market posted robust growth with the number of net additional subscribers reaching 2.94 million. The enviroment surrounding our business, however, became harsher as the competition among mobile telecom companies intensified..” He also had some interesting comments about their strategy going forward to year end. Full Program Run-time 14:57

Fujitsu Labs Unveils Prototype PDA

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd announced that it built a prototype wireless LAN-capable compact personal digital assistant (PDA) featuring a 4-inch SVGA LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. It has 802.11b wireless LAN, Bluetooth and infrared communication capabilities so that it can access directly to a LAN or virtual private network (VPN) without using any communication tool.

DoCoMo and KDDI Pushing the Envelope and Raking in Profits

Just as we thought things are gearing up this month, Japan’s number one and two carriers have really pulled some goodies out of their bag. We’ve already talked about KDDI and flat fees, but this week’s subject is profits for the carriers and a grab bag of gains for subscribers. If ever there was a reason not to keep your eyes fixed on Japan’s wireless communications, we’d like to know. DoCoMo trumped itself recently announcing profits, Felicia Mobile commerce with Sony, and now (finally) some concrete plans to expand i-mode. We have the innards of DoCoMo’s recent press conference up for you in this week’s WWJ video program here.

Panasonic Mobile JV for 3G in China

A mobile phone subsidiary of Japan’s home electronics giant Matsushita said it has set up a joint venture with a US firm in China to develop 3G mobile networks. Capitalized at 10 million dollars, Universal Communications Technology Co. Ltd., located in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, will also market the 3G networks in China.

China's First 3G Mobile Phone

China’s efforts to develop a high-speed telecoms technology that could compete with Western standards in the world’s biggest mobile market have taken a step forward with the first compatible phone. A Chinese university said yesterday it had developed a telephone for the home-grown standard known as TD-SCDMA, a milestone that could help decide when third-generation mobile licences are introduced in the country.

JCB to Test Biometric Authentication; Fingerprint Identification

JCB Co., Ltd. has announced a biometric authentication trial project in a mobile environment. The trial starts November in Japan with JCB testing the usefulness of fingerprint authentication for mobile access to JCB’s on-line cardmember account inquiry service ‘MyJCB’, using NTT DoCoMo’s F505i mobile phone equipped with a fingerprint scanner. In this trial, the participants download the JCB Safety Login i-appli application, developed in cooperation with Fujitsu Ltd., to the F505i mobile phone to verify fingerprints information.

CEATEC Japan 2003: The Future of Wireless

CEATEC Japan 2003: The Future of WirelessThe Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) is Asia’s premiere trade show for information technology and electronics sectors, including the fields of imaging, information and communications. This event brings together the complete spectrum of new technologies with a total of 505 companies and organizations, including almost every major Japanese electronics and communications company, 170 exhibitors from 16 counties and regions worldwide, exhibited in 2,460 booths. We visited KDDI to take a closer look at their prototype Sanyo Digital TV phone, talked to the Kyocera folks about the upcoming convergence of GSM and CDMA and interviewed DoCoMo about their IT-House service offering coming soon for 3G FOMA handsets. Full Program Run-time 20:39