The Japanese government plans to allow three or four companies to start offering high-speed wireless Internet Protocol phone services in 2007, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Thursday. The article said the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will formally unveil its plans for wireless IP phone services on Friday.
NEC Australia has announced the launch of their first i-mode 3G mobile phone – the NEC N600i – for those down under. Available now in Telstra stores, the dual-mode N600i is equipped with the Access NetFront 3.2 browser, a QVGA 2-in colour LCD screen, Bluetooth, TransFlash memory card and a 1.3-megapixel auto-focus camera. The new unit is also available to order via Telstra’s i-mode online shop.
A total of 32 women, hoping to become presenters for a video-based cell-phone weather service, gathered at KDDI’s Designing Studio showroom in Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Final auditions for the Kanto region’s “Weather News” service began on Monday when KDDI selected their short-list of just 7 from the 1,034 people who had submitted written applications. Online voting to choose the two winning candidates will be carried out 12-25 October.
KDDI/au have announced the latest addition to their CDMA 1X handset line-up, the A1405PT [ .jpg image ] from PanTech & Curitel. The phone was jointly developed with KDDI and marks the first entry of a Korean-made model into the Japanese market. Due to hit the streets by the end of November, it comes with a limited set of features (only a VGA camera for example), but it does tout an organic EL “Stream Screen” sub-display and has a built-in “crime prevention buzzer function” that is able to sound the warning sound of a large volume. This should be a fun feature for our next trip out to see the Yomiuri Giants play!
Japan’s top mobile carrier DoCoMo and leading online mall operator Rakuten have forged a capital alliance to expand mobile auction services. Rakuten will spin off its peer-2-peer (P2P) auction network, Rakuten Flea Market, into a separate entity, Rakuten Auction, Inc from Dec. 1st. DoCoMo will then invest 4.2 billion yen ($37 million) starting Dec. 16 for a 40 percent share of the new firm. The deal does not include Rakuten’s profitable B2C (Business-2-Consumer) Super Auction site, which offers new goods from its huge listing of online mall operators. Rakuten currently has around 17.3 million users; DoCoMo 45 million subscribers.
Anxious to break the news to the media, the planned tie-up was announced at a hastily called press conference in Tokyo’s Okura Hotel with virtually no details on how the two firms plan on tweaking the service to attract DoCoMo users or differentiate it from KDDI’s EZ Web auAuction or even Rakuten’s current somewhat limited mobile auction portal. DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura and Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani were ill prepared to answer questions from the media pressing for more details.
Vodafone K.K. have just announced that on 1 November 2005 the company will introduce “Love Flat-rate,” Japan’s first mobile service that allows customers to call and send mail to a designated party as much as they like, according to a press release. The service name stands for the ability to call and mail the person ‘one loves most’ without worrying about the cost. The service lets a customer call and mail a designated party (one Vodafone K.K. phone number) without limitations, and discounts video calls by 50% for a monthly fixed charge of 300 yen (315 yen including tax).
