Net Kaden Wireless Technology Networks

Japanese companies are rapidly commercializing the so-called Net Kaden system for electronic control and monitoring of homes through links with mobile phone and high-speed broadband systems. Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. are already marketing segments of a Net Kaden network. Hitachi Ltd. plans to debut one on the domestic market next spring and Sony Corp. is preparing a home server using new semiconductors.

In line with these moves, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. is preparing what it termed an “ultimate communication infrastructure” for households featuring multichannel, high-precision broadcasting at speeds 100 times faster than currently available fiber-optic circuits to support Net Kaden.

Shuichi Deguchi, director of NTT’s broadband promotion operations, said the speed of the fiber-optic network for households will be increased to about 1 gigabit per second in urban areas from the current 100 megabits per second by the end of 2004. “Various services using this infrastructure will be made available in the second half of 2004,” he said. Continue >>