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

Year: 2006

3GSM World Congress 2006 Awards

The nominees have been announced for this year’s 3GSM awards with the winners to take center stage during a VIP gala dinner in Barcelona’s fabulous National Palace on 14 February 2006. According to the organizers, Mobile communications as a new entertainment and information medium has become the ‘fourth screen,’ after television, cinema and the PC, capable of delivering a vast array of media rich content to users throughout the world. This year there are new categories for mobile gaming, sports, music, film and video content.

Onyx Introduces Advanced Wireless CRM For Japanese Market

Onyx Software Corporation, a worldwide leader in customer management solutions for the enterprise, today announced Onyx Employee Portal Wireless (OEP Wireless) for Japan. Part of an integrated suite of mobile enterprise CRM solutions, OEP Wireless for Japan is immediately available for Foma 3G and mova 2G Series iMode devices. Onyx’s introduction of OEP Wireless for Japan offers 45 million iMode users access to Onyx’s versatile CRM platform for delivering enhanced customer service and satisfaction. OEP Wireless for Japan increases business productivity by keeping mobile professionals connected and informed, while delivering advanced capabilities for quickly and easily managing customer and partner account, sales, service and support activities.

W-CDMA 900-MHz Calls Achieved

Nortel and QUALCOMM have successfully completed HSDPA calls in the 900-MHz band, a spectrum capable of delivering wireless broadband such as mobile TV, video-on-demand, video telephony and DSL-like services to rural areas. W-CDMA in the 900-MHz band is a cost-effective way to deliver nationwide high-speed wireless coverage. It achieves a 60-percent reduction in cell sites required to serve rural areas and delivers improved quality of service in urban areas by enhancing in-building penetration by 25 percent, according to the technology’s proponents.

Vodafone Japan New 3G Phones: Details, Audio Interview

Last week was a rare clean sweep in Japan’s tooth-and-nail handset race as each of the Big Three carriers in turn announced multiple new 3G models at splashy press events. Across the field, we saw an onboard 4-GB hard drive and a digiTV phone from KDDI, the 702i ‘designer’ models from DoCoMo and Japan’s first Samsung phone and new 3G data services from Vodafone. Vodafone Japan New 3G Phones: Details, Audio Interview

It’s no simple coincidence that this week the carriers are announcing their third-quarter financial results: it’s super vital to have a flashy new set of handsets to point to when presenting your report card to the analysts in Tokyo and London. Also, spring is the premiere mobile sales season in Japan and the models announced last week should hit the streets around cheery blossom time.

If Vodafone Japan’s market troubles in the past couple of years can be blamed on handset mix, then the new phones may go a long way to to fixing Big Red’s market position. Today’s WWJ Portable Reportable MP3 audio report features an interview with Vodafone Japan from last week’s press event with in-depth details on their new 3G models, which include phones from Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp and NEC, and comments on competitive positioning in the market.

Vodafone Japan 3Q Results Released

Extract: Vodafone K.K.’s 3G devices increased by 564,600 in the quarter, bringing the number of 3G subscribers to 2,318,200, whilst market share of 3G net additions remained fairly constant throughout the quarter at just over 10%. Blended ARPU for the quarter was down 3.7% year on year, an improvement from the 5.4% fall recorded in the quarter to September. The continued fall in ARPU reflects the loss of higher value customers in the previous year and competitive pressures on pricing. Blended ARPU for the quarter was down 3.7% year on year, an improvement from the 5.4% fall recorded in the quarter to September. The continued fall in ARPU reflects the loss of higher value customers in the previous year and competitive pressures on pricing. The improved trend is due in part to the positive impact from the new range of flat-rate plans, which are generating additional usage. Service revenue fell 4.5% year on year due to the decline in ARPU. Voice revenues fell 6.2%, with non-voice revenues broadly stable. The improvement versus the previous quarter can be attributed to an improved ability to retain customers, resulting from a better handset line-up and service offering. (WWJ subscribers log in for more details).

KDDI Financial Results for FY3/2006

KDDI have released their financial results for the third quarter (3Q) of the current fiscal year ending March 2006. The company’s operating revenues from the mobile business came in at 2,486 bn yen, up sharply from the year earlier figure of 2,324 bn yen. Nonetheless, consolidated earnings for KDDI overall (mobile, fixed-line and other business) before interest, taxes and deductions were down year-on-year at 649 bn yen from 664 bn yen.