Year: <span>2006</span>
Year: 2006

Year: 2006

JAXA's Giant Satellite for Mobile Phones

Japan has launched live-cast for DoCoMo 3G phones, one of the world’s largest geostationary satellites, in a bid to improve mobile telephone reception in remote areas. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the H-2A rocket at 3:32 pm (12:02 IST) as planned after a postponement Saturday due to cloudy weather at the launch site at Tanegashima in southern Japan. The experimental satellite, which is known as Kiku Number 8, is the largest built by Japan’s space agency. It weighs about 3 tons and is 40 meters long.

DoCoMo to Raise Stake in PLDT

NTT DoCoMo announced today that it plans to acquire approximately 6 million shares of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company – PLDT – or 3.2% of total issued and outstanding shares, for an estimated 30 billion Japanese yen. The investment will further strengthen DoCoMo’s relationship with PLDT and Smart Communications, PLDT’s wholly owned mobile subsidiary. Smart, with DoCoMo’s backing, intends to launch the i-mode service and expanded 3G services in the Philippines.

Toshiba Exits Music by Selling EMI

Toshiba Corp. has announced that it will sell its entire stake in Japanese label Toshiba EMI Ltd. to Britain’s EMI Group Plc, saying that it would sell its stake for about 21 billion yen ($179 million). One of Japan’s major music and entertainment companies, Toshiba EMI is currently controlled 45 percent by Toshiba and the remaining 55 percent by the British music group. Toshiba accepted an offer from the EMI Group as “the music content business today is less relevant to other businesses within the Toshiba Group,” it said in a statement.

DoCoMo Announces i-mode for India

NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison Essar announced today an agreement under which Hutch will launch the i-mode mobile service in India within 2007. DoCoMo will license the patented technologies and know-how needed for Hutch to offer i-mode on GSM, GPRS and W-CDMA networks. Preparations are also underway to launch i-mode in Hong Kong, Macao and the Philippines. DoCoMo plans to expand the service to a total of 26 countries/regions in the future.

Coolest Mobile Phones in the World

BusinessWeek’s Ian Rowley is drooling over Japanese handsets Here – and who could blame him? However, his reasoning as to why these pocket rockets “seldom make it overseas” is just a bit off. “Most of the world won’t get the chance to buy these handsets. Japan’s superphones seldom make it overseas. One reason: Many phone users would be unwilling to pay as much as Japanese do for their monthly bills – $60 on average. Before long, though, much of the new technology, if not the same handsets, will likely find its way out of Japan.”

Japan Telecom Forecast FY06

Market trends with a positive impact on the total figure in FY2006 were robust IP and fiber optic markets pushing up shipment of routers, LAN switches and digital transmission equipment, expansion of cellular phone services, increasing demand for base station communication equipment, and the growth in multipurpose office equipment as businesses aim for improved efficiency and compliance. However, the figure for cellular handsets is expected to have remained the same as FY2005, leading to the FY2006 forecast figure of 4.332 trillion yen, a relatively flat growth over the previous year.