Vodafone Strikes Back with 3G Sharp Phone

Nearly the tonic the company needed? Vodafone K.K. is reported to be lauching a new dual mode megapixel camera-bearing 3G handset, the V801SH by Sharp this April. Does that mean the technical issues that stalled rollout last October are sorted? Could be! The .pdf press release from Vodafone is Here.

Releasing just one handset for 3G won’t make huge waves or overcome the intertia that seems to be developing in Vodafone K.K.’s 3G rollout: What the company needs is a full-blown, highly-publicised flood of phones to wave the flag for its 3GPP-based W-CDMA network in Japan and roaming on GSM networks in… well, with Vodafone, just about everywhere.

To say Vodafone’s got a strategic advantage over DoCoMo is an understatement, but so saying that they are not exactly pushing the envelope with new handsets either. Still, when Vodafone gets rolling, it could be thunderous: When it comes to countries, they’re not unkown for their ability to roam, and they’ve got the 3GPP blend of W-CDMA to boot (up).

The Sharp rollout does hint though that the company and its excellent vendor have ironed out the technical issues that stalled the rollout last October.