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editors

Vodafone to Block Some Spam Mail

Vodafone K.K. said today today they would introduce a new function that blocks mails with URL links sent via the Internet containing invitations to dating and adult sites, starting late March. The company said they “aim to make [the] Vodafone live! mobile Internet service more dependable for customers.” The major source of unsolicited mail in Japan has traditionally been Internet mail servers from which spammers dump mail addressed to mobile terminals into the carriers’ wireless Internet services. It is free to send mobile-terminated mail, unlike in countries that use GSM network systems.

DoCoMo Leaks Personal Data

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Monday the phone numbers and other personal data of about 24,600 of its clients have been leaked. The mobile phone operator said it has launched in-house investigations because there is a high possibility that the data were leaked by insiders. The leaked information appears to be partial lists of customers in Niigata Prefecture and neighboring areas, with names, addresses, mobile phone numbers and phone numbers used for inquiries.

NEC to Demonstrate Next-generation HSDPA Network at 3GSM 2005

NEC announced that it has realized a total solution for advanced mobile networks boasting interoperation of HSDPA, advanced packet core, and IMS, representing its first step toward the realization of a next-generation network with an converged fixed/mobile environment. “NEC is ready to provide a total solution composed of a 3G advanced packet core, a HSDPA radio network, IMS, and other related applications to commercial services.” said Katsuhiro Nakagawa, Associate Senior Vice President of NEC Corporation. For more information regarding NEC’s activities at 3GSM, please visit: http://www.nec-3gsm.com

Vodafone's Japan Exit: Thinking the Unthinkable

From the WWJ newsletter; Last Monday will go down in history as Black Monday for Vodafone Japan as the carrier’s January subscriber numbers hit the street. The situation is so bad that speculation on a Japan exit strategy, which until recently was kept quiet behind closed doors, has finally hit the open press. The 12 February issue of Business Week wonders whether the parent Vodafone might “bail out altogether” with Masayoshi Son’s Softbank being the prime candidate to step in and buy up the pieces. (For the full article, access the WWJ Newsletter archives here.)

Cell Phone Becomes Teacher's Pet

When cellphones began to spread among teenagers in the late 1990s, it became something of a teacher’s nightmare, and nowhere more so than in rules-oriented Japan. Mobile phones were immediately banned, but students’ enthusiasm could not be contained: phones went off in the middle of classes, students relayed emails to friends all day long, and cheating using the phone during exams became pervasive. But recently, there has been a change of heart among some Japanese educators. In fact, some teachers at universities and high schools are requiring that their pupils show up in class with a mobile phone.

EZ Game Street: Watch Out, DoCoMo

EZ Game StreetKDDI rolls down EZ Street with an engaging new mobile gaming platform due to go live today. Designed for KDDI by Square Enix –- the gaming powerhouse behind the massively popular Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises — EZ Game Street invites gamers to stroll rather than scroll down a cellular landscape of 350 games from 43 of the world’s top game makers, including Capcom, Disney, Koei, Hudson and Namco.

Text-based searches give it up for interactive icons in the new BREW-powered platform created for KDDI/au CDMA 1X WIN 3G phones. Users click on the icons for more info plus a sample of the game’s theme song. Admittedly, there is some initial text-bar crawling: users first click on “games” in the KDDI WIN menu to reach Game Street. There, the menu is divided into six choices: title, genre, new games, producer, randomizer and recommended. Click on any line and a colorful screen pops up decorated with familiar characters from each game -– up to nine per screen. Pick a character and click through the payment/subscription screen to play. Options include one-time game play, monthly subscription plus game information sites, online communities and game software sales.

TTPCom and NEC Collaborate to Develop Dual-mode 3G/2G Chips

TTP Communications and NEC Electronics Corporation, the leader in single-mode (W-CDMA) 3G baseband chips in Japan, today announce that they are joining forces to develop dual-mode chips that will include TTPCom Limited’s EDGE/GPRS/GSM silicon and software architecture. This fast-track route to the development of 3G/2G chips will help NEC Electronics increase its presence in the global market. NEC Electronics is developing a dual-mode 3G/2G chipset to address the growing world market for dual-mode wireless products that can handover to EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks outside pockets of 3G coverage.

Underwhelmed by DoCoMo's Next-Gen premini

DoCoMo’s first premini mobile was a tiny (90mm) stripped-down, no-frills 2G phone weighing a feather-weight 69 grams. Just out is its successor, the bigger and juicer premini-II, redesigned with a 1.3-megapixel camera, enhanced music elements, bar-code reader and memory stick. While the premini nicely occupied an open niche in Japan’s mobile ecosystem (as a second celly to use where cam phones aren’t allowed), it’s difficult to see what need the more full-featured premini-II fulfills. Manufactured by Sony Ericsson, the premini-II is slim, polished, weighs 79 grams, has 1.9-inch QVGA screen and comes in three colors: silver, black and brown. Given its beefier size (105 mm), it should probably have been called the pre-midi.

NetGear's 108-Mbps Wireless in Japan

NETGEAR announced their new line of MIMO G wireless products based on the True MIMO(TM) chipset from Airgo Networks. Available in Japan this month, the MIMO G Wireless Router (Model WGM124) and PC Card (Model WGM511) provide customers with the highest-performing wireless networking technology on the market with up to 8x the speed and coverage of standard 802.11g devices. “Whether in the home office, family room, or back yard, customers will enjoy a smooth, consistent connection,” said Naoki Hayashida, Japan Country Manager.

Fujitsu Enables Prolonged Viewing of Digital Broadcasts to Mobile Phones

Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of a low-power analog to-digital (AD) converter that employs a delta-sigma(*1) modulator for mobile phones that are capable of receiving digital terrestrial television and radio broadcasts(*2). The new delta-sigma modulator-based AD converter can reduce power consumption levels of tuners embedded in mobile phones to 30 milliwatts (mW), approximately one-sixth to one-third the power drain of current levels, thereby enabling prolonged viewing of terrestrial digital broadcasting on mobile phones by significantly lessening the power consumption of mobile phone batteries. In addition, the integration of the new AD converter with OFDM demodulator (*3) onto a single chip is expected to facilitate the development of mobile phones that are more compact than currently available.