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.
Market 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 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.
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.
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 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.
