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

Year: 2006

Japan's Bullet Trains to Get Wi-Fi

Passengers on the famous Japanese Shinkansen “bullet trains” will be able to surf the Internet while traveling at 300 kilometers per hour, thanks to a new service planned by the railway operator. But there’s going to be quite a wait until the first wireless LAN-equipped trains arrive at the platform. Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai), which operates the Shinkansen service between Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka, said it plans to offer wireless Internet service throughout all cars of its new N700-series trains in early 2009.

NEC Enables Telefonica Mobile Services

NEC Corporation announced an agreement with Telefonica Moviles Espana, S.A. for delivery of its Liberty Enabled Proxy. The solution enables the introduction of an easy sign-on environment for multiple service access by end-users through a single authentication process over WAP and i-mode mobile Internet browsing. NEC’s Liberty Enabled Proxy, certified by Liberty Alliance through its conformance tests, enables terminal independent single sign-on services over WAP and i-mode. Without the proxy, special client software for mobile terminals is usually necessary to benefit from the Liberty single sign-on service.

Pac-Man Fever Hits U.S.

In the second of a series of Q&As with Japanese-headquartered game publishers making the plunge into the U.S. mobile game biz, Gamasutra had a chance to talk to Scott Rubin, VP of Sales and Marketing for Namco Networks, regarding the company’s history and plans. Rubin discussed both the formation of Namco Networks in North America and the popularity of Namco’s classic titles, such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug, on cellphone, answering the same questions as Capcom’s Midori Yuasa, the first in this mobile Q&A series.

Brazil Adopts Japan Digital TV Standard

Brazil has selected a HD digital television system based on a Japanese standard for its more than 120 million television viewers, instead of the standards used in Europe and the United States. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday signed a decree authorizing the use of the Japanese standard in a ceremony attended by Japanese Communications Minister, Heizo Takenaka. The new system is expected be operational within seven years and the transition to digital television from the current analog model will occur over 10 years, the presidential press office said in a statement.

Softbank Exec Confident of Outdoing Rivals

Softbank president Masayoshi Son expressed confidence that the Softbank group will outdo NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan’s mobile phone service market. The Softbank group, including Yahoo Japan, has been stronger than rivals such as NTT DoCoMo in Internet services, Son told its first general meeting of shareholders since the Internet investor acquired the Japan unit of British mobile phone company Vodafone in April.

KDDI Making Moves Overseas

KDDI Corp of Japan has signed a joint venture agreement with the UK’s BT Group to start offering global communications networks services from August. According to a statement from KDDI, the new alliance will target Japanese companies with overseas operations as part of the carrier’s plan to strengthen its worldwide operations by building new broadband networks at lower costs. According to a report in the UK Financial Times, pair aim to generate revenues of USD1 billion from the alliance within three to five years.