Archive for the 'Wireless Internet' Category
DoCoMo to Offer Flat-Rate Tethering
DoCoMo has announced that beginning December 1st it will reduce the monthly maximum charge for wireless data charged by tethering a handset with PC or other device under their Pake-hodai double flat-rate data service to 5,985 yen, down from 13,650 yen (from approx. $150 to $65), via selected Internet access points.
Dell Making MVNO Move in Japan?
Mark over at TechRadar has a post on recent rumblings by Dell in the UMPC space. We have seen the increasing push to sell flat-rate data subscriptions - primed by ‘free’ mini laptop hooked to two-year contract - over the last six months (from all operators offering several OEM models) but this is the first whiff of an MVNO play. According to the article, machine will go on sale here this summer with internal HSDPA cards which allow max. downlink speeds of 7.2Mbps for an estimated $500. While there is no indication of on-going access fees, the current typical all you can surf account runs about $40 per month. Now that would be interesting!
Alternative WLAN Access Offer
JCI will start a new fixed-rate data service with a fee of approx 10-cents per minute on March 23, 2009. “Doccica” will use DoCoMo’s 3G network combined with public wireless LAN access points from several established providers. Subscribers are required to purchase a USB dongle manufactured by ZTE Corp., for approx US$150, including a pre-paid fee of for the first 500 minutes. WWJ conducted a video interview with Sanda-san, way back in 2002, about the mvno’s B-Mobile product offering.
CocoTan - iPhone 3G Location App
NTT Com held a press conference to announce their new free push-type service that feeds information about nearby places of interest to iPhone and iTouch owners who also subscribe to the companies HOTSPOT WLAN flat-rate data package offering. The new service, named Cocotan! taken from Japanese koko “here” and tan “search”, automatically provides a list of recommendations based on the clients access point matched to a database of consumer-generated content, including blogs and Web reviews, for restaurants etc. located near-by.
NEC Announces Global Deal with IQ
NEC Corp. and Carrier IQ confirmed that they have formed a global partnership agreement. The companies have integrated Carrier IQ’s multi-vendor compatible Mobile Service Intelligence technology alongside NEC’s leading Device Management products for mobile OEMs and carriers, and will jointly promote the integrated products world-wide.
The Glittering Allure of Mobile
Our good friend Alan Moore, founder of SMLXL and co-author of Communities Dominate Brands, has released this paper - commissioned by Microsoft - titled: The Glittering Allure of the Mobile Society. It’s a must read for those who are following the engagement marketing space, and a honor to be quoted within, download the full PDF file Here.
Japan’s Super-Advanced Mobile Web
Kudo’s to TechCrunch for looking beyond the usual US-centric focus to explain the magic mobile ecosystem here in Japan with 1,000 words or less.
While, as stated, the web access device of choice is running at even 50-50 between PC and cellphone, it’s most certainly not an either/or scenario. The urban legend that Japanese users adopted web via mobile because of low PC penetration has been clearly de-bunked by the ITU. As we have stated many times in the past, fixed-line connections per capita in Japan was on par with most other G7 countries in 1999 at the launch of i-mode [Source].
Research in Japan has shown that mobile usage of voice, mail and web – across all demographics - hardly varies between urban and rural locations, so the mass transit train excuse explanation is also not based in fact. More after the jump..
Opera Releases Mini Mobile Report
Opera has posted it’s Q1 2008 mobile browser report indicating the top 10 sites visited from the top 10 countries, ranked by usage. The findings published show that social networking, search and major content portals are the most popular across all regions, no surprise, however the absense of results from Japan should certainly raise some eyebrows?
Renesas Considers Taking FOMA Global
According to this report, Renesas is interested in offering the FOMA platform as a handset reference design to companies outside Japan. FOMA, or Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, is Docomo’s 3G network standard design followed all Japanese handset makers that provide cellphones to DoCoMo. Considering the vested interest of Renesas in SH-Mobile this ‘news’ is not surprising. However, it does indicate that more players and products are gearing up for the shift towards LTE.
Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Announce JV
Alcatel-Lucent and NEC announced the start of a broad collaboration to market advanced end-to-end communications solutions. Alcatel-Lucent and NEC have decided to form a joint venture that will focus on the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband access solutions. Through this joint development effort, the two companies intend to accelerate the availability of next-generation wireless solutions.
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