Year: <span>2005</span>
Year: 2005

Year: 2005

Change of Tack Boosts i-mode Overseas

Directly investing in foreign carriers was a fairly hefty blunder for NTT DoCoMo. It took big financial losses, and failed to establish i-mode as a global force. But a new president and a new plan have seen things change significantly. Former DoCoMo CEO Keiji Tachikawa led a number of huge investments in overseas carriers like AT&T Wireless and Three in the UK, in hopes of turning the operators into users of its i-mode system. The plan failed, to say the least, costing the company $17 billion in writedowns — a far cry from its runaway success in its home market.

DoCoMo Sets Ambitious 3G Goal

DoCoMo has set a target of selling more than 20 million high-speed data handsets this year, twice the number of its customers using such services, to help win a dominant market share. “More than 80 percent of the handsets we sell this year will be 3G, and the total number of 3G subscribers will be more than our competitor for sure,” Takeshi Natsuno, DoCoMo’s managing director of multimedia services, said Monday in an interview. [We noted this strategic move when they announced the low-cost 700i-series in February. — Ed.]

Dilithium adds ISUP Triggering to DNA 3G Test Tool

Dilithium Networks, a leading provider of wireless multimedia solutions, today announced a major new release of its industry-leading 3G protocol analysis and test tool family, Dilithium Networks Analyzer (DNA). Release 3.0 of DNA provides support for ISUP terminal and monitoring (including China), ISUP signaling to initiate and receive calls, and ISUP based trigger for traffic monitoring. DNA 3.0 also incorporates powerful triggering capabilities for monitoring multiple simultaneous channels with the option of capturing traffic upon trigger. An Auto-Dialer feature, available as an option to existing customers, provides automated and unattended testing capabilities. Additional features include enhancements for ISDN support, expanded message logging capabilities, and more.

Insider Visit to Tokyo's Hottest Mobile Players

Wireless Watch Japan will produce the third Mobile Intelligence mission to Tokyo, 17-22 April 2005, providing an in-depth study of the success factors, companies and technologies that have boosted Japan’s mobile Internet into the world’s No. 1 position. Full Press Release Here

In the past year, new third-generation (3G) wireless Internet services have won millions of mobile consumer customers with QR bar-code readers, e-wallet-based m-commerce, mobile TV, and CD-quality music downloading all enjoying fast consumer uptake. Furthermore, flat-rate data pricing, convergence between cellular, VoIP and fixed wireless services, and per-event billing are all fundamentally reshaping mobile business models. Nonetheless, as Japan’s carriers perfect their 3G survival strategies, they find that 3G ARPUs are actually higher than on older 2G systems.

PSP Running Wi-Fi for Korea

KT Corp., South Korea’s biggest fixed-line telephone and Internet operator, announced Monday an alliance with Sony Corp. to equip the Japanese electronics giant’s popular PSP console with Wi-Fi Internet access. KT said PSP customers will be able to surf the Web via the company’s 14,000 hotspots nationwide. Kang Hee-won, a spokesman at Sony Computer Entertainment Korea, added it is the first time in the world for Sony to add Wi-Fi connectivity for the PSP machines.

Human Area Networking Technology

NTT DoCoMo have developed a technology they call RedTacton, “which it claims can send data over the skin’s surface at speeds of up to 2 Mbps — equivalent to a fast broadband data connection. Your body could soon be the backbone of a broadband personal data network linking your mobile phone or MP3 player to a cordless headset, your digital camera to a PC or printer, and all the gadgets you carry around…” Yikes!

Welcome to Aichi Expo 2005

The Aichi World Expo officially opened here yesterday and “Japan has pulled out all the technological stops to show that its gadgetry and ingenuity is the best in the world.” Opposite Toshiba’s digital cinema is Hitachi’s virtual reality safari. Hitachi equips visitors with portable handsets that contain a prototype of its mu-chip, a processor slated to become the key component of future wireless devices, including mobile phones. As the handset is brought close to particular transmitters, it instantly downloads any information on offer in that area and displays it on a small screen.

Unicom to Sell Both Networks?

China Unicom, the smaller of the mainland’s two mobile operators, will not receive one of three 3G mobile licenses from the government and its parent will be forced to sell both its networks to China Telecom and China Netcom, the National Business Daily reported Friday. Citing industry sources, the Shanghai government-affiliated newspaper said China Unicom’s parent, China United Communications, will sell its GSM network to China Telecom, and its CDMA network to China Netcom.

KDDI Designing Studio: Video Tour

KDDI Harajuku Design Studio TourJapan’s wireless industry provides some of the coolest mobile experiences on planet Earth. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that mobile players here are also masters at the street-level marketing of cell phones and wireless services — and KDDI’s Designing Studio is not only the latest over-the-top effort at creating a consumer-targeted mobile funland, it’s also the best. In today’s program, WWJ’s Gail Nakada speaks with the Studio’s general manager, tours five floors’ worth of interactive games, live handsets and mobile demos, and plugs into Harajuku’s ultimate mobile zeitgeist.