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Kyocera Provides iBurst to Kenya

Kyocera Corporation announced the commercial introduction of iBurst wireless broadband services in the Republic of Kenya, starting February 2, 2006. iBurst base stations and terminals designed and produced by Kyocera will be provided to Africa Online, the Kenyan Internet service provider (ISP). Africa Online will commence iBurst wireless broadband services in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, with plans to expand service into Mombassa, Nakuru, Kisumu, and Nanyuki. The company is targeting 20,000 subscribers within one year.

Motorola Looking to Japan

Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile-phone maker, could partner with a Japanese manufacturer to launch appealing phones that will help it boost its presence in Japan, its chief executive said Thursday. “We’re trying to figure out how to get into the market quicker with our brand and working potentially with someone else,” Chief Executive Ed Zander said, referring to Japan in an interview with Reuters in Tokyo. “(We’re) talking to the NECs, the Panasonics, the Sanyos, and looking at, ‘Is there technology collaboration to bring products to market?'” Zander said. “We’re exploring some of those things.”

Softbank to Broadcast Mobile TV

Softbank Corp. plans to start a nationwide video broadcasting service for mobile phones by the end of 2012, Softbank officials said Wednesday. The Internet services firm, which will enter the mobile phone market in spring 2007, will ask the telecommunications ministry for a broadcasting license as early as next year, the officials said. Softbank plans to succeed by using a range of attractive broadcast programs, including its own productions, they said.

NTT Planning WiMax Tests

NTT, Japan’s largest telecommunications group, plans to test WiMax technology as early as next month. Group companies will work together on trials of WiMax technology, said Masao Nakamura, president and CEO of NTT DoCoMo. Nakamura, who shared only a few details of the planned tests, confirmed that NTT DoCoMo would be one of the participants. Previously, NTT DoCoMo said it intended to push the 3G technology WCDMA to faster speeds. The “Super 3G” service will offer data transmission rates as high as 100Mbit/s and could be available in metropolitan areas as soon as 2008.

DoCoMo's Prototype HSDPA Handsets

NTT DoCoMo just announced three prototype high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) handsets developed with Fujitsu, Motorola (Wow!) and NEC. HSDPA, a high-speed packet transmission technology standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project, offers a theoretical maximum downlink speed of about 14 Mbps. The handsets will be demonstrated at DoCoMo’s booth at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona, Spain from February 13 to 16.

DoCoMo aims to start HSDPA services sometime between July and September 2006 (as per our recent bold prediction for 2006 — Eds).

Info Plant's Paid Mobile Site Survey

Online market researcher Info Plant has announced the results of a survey of 6,366 men and women on how people use paid mobile sites. The company conducted the survey from December 23 to January 3. When asked about how many paid sites they have used, 24.8% of the respondents answered “one”, followed by “two” (17.8%) and “three” (16.2%). By gender, more women than men have paid for mobile sites (80.0% vs. 74.6%). By age, about 80% of the men in their 20s and the women in their 20s to 40s have paid for a mobile site.

Disaster Message Board Service

Vodafone K.K. announced today that, from 10:00 AM on 1 February 2006, Web communication fees will be toll-free when accessing the Disaster Message Board Service. First launched in April 2005, the Disaster Message Board Service lets customers confirm the safety of their family and friends via Vodafone live! in the event of a major disaster. To let customers get familiar with the details and methods of using the Disaster Message Board Service, Vodafone K.K. offers a trial service available on the first day of every month (excluding the month of January). Customers will also be able to use this trial service without paying Web communication charges.

DoCoMo to Expand Flat-rate Data Tariffs

DoCoMo said this morning they would expand the number of calling plans with which users can bundle flat-rate data. Until now, to get flat-rate data, you also had to select one of two rather pricey FOMA voice plans, such as the Type M Plan for 6,930 yen per month; with flat-rate costing 4,095, this meant that flat-rate data cost about 11,000 yen per month! Starting 1 March, all new FOMA billing plans introduced after 1 November 2005 will be eligible for flat-rate.

DoCoMo Results 3Q2005

DoCoMo have just posted their financial results for the quarter ending 31 December 2005. Operating revenues came in at 3,582.2 bn yen, down 1.7% year-on-year — not bad considering the downward trending ARPU. Operating income was 693.5 bn yen, down 7.7% and income before taxes was 811.2 bn yen, down 32.1%. The lower profits indicate that costs to operate and expand the 3G service continue to remain high. But there are few companies — much less 3G carriers — faced with the ‘problem’ of calculating taxes on 8 billion bucks of profit.

JR East Cranks up Cell-phone Tickets

A new service using mobile phones as smart tickets for trains operated by East Japan Railway Co. began Saturday. The service, named Mobile Suica, combines the service of JR East’s Suica IC card and mobile phone service offered by NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. Once customers pay for train fees or train passes online, they can go through JR wickets in and around Tokyo by just holding their handsets over card readers on the ticket gates, according to the railway. (Mobile Suica is finally in operation! See today’s Viewpoint — Eds.)