Yozan has set up a WiMAX feasibility test in the Hokuriku region in Japan building on their previously announced Tokyo network, valued at $16.7 million, to deliver high-speed IP connectivity capable of a wide array of data service offerings. Hokuriku is typical of Japan’s mountainous regions in which it will be more challenging to implement WiMAX infrastructure.
KDDI has issued a follow-up to their spring announcement regarding the dual-mode CDMA 1x and corporate WLAN network service offering. The corporate mobile business solution service, or so-called “Office Freedom” campaign, will now also use NEC’s Univerge SV7000 for SIP access point hardware, with the E02SA BREW handset from Sanyo. DoCoMo have also been working in this area over the last few years to provide major corporate clients, such as Toyota and JAL, the in-house VoIP ability using NEC’s 900iL handset.
Fujitsu Microelectronics and Phoenix Technologies recently announced that Fujitsu has introduced the latest member of its fingerprint sensor IC technology, the Fujitsu MBF320 Sweep Sensor. The new MBF320 features TrustedCore pre-boot authentication (PBA), fingerprint-matching algorithms and biometric software from Cogent Systems, and a USB 2.0 full-speed interface. According to the companies statement, a single, rapid fingerprint sweep across the MBF320 sensor captures fingerprint features associated with high-resolution, 500-dpi fingerprint data.
The Fuel Cell Development Information Center (FCDIC) recently held a seminar titled “Dawn of the age of fuel cell for mobile devices” with lecturers were invited from leading companies involved in fuel cell development such as NTT DoCoMo, Inc., NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi, Ltd. and Canon Inc. In the lecture, the company mentioned not just the basic performance as a power source for mobile devices but also specific requirements with respect to reliability and safety in actual usage.
Frequency issues may be a gating factor in Japan, where WiMAX penetration depends on how the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) regulates the usage of the 2.5GHz band. In December 2005, the group offered recommendations for spectrum usage from 800MHz to 81GHz. The MIC study group chose the 2.5GHz band specifically for low-cost broadband mobile wireless services not provided by current mobile-phone networks. An advisory telecommunication council will issue a draft report in September, with a final report due in November.
The hottest topic roiling Tokyo’s hot street this month is MNP – mobile number portability.
Details on pricing, dates and procedures that Japan’s carriers will follow to implement the regulator-mandated programme have been posted on WWJ in several items on this topic, including here, here and here.. Analysts, pundits and assorted commentators have all more or less concluded that the net winner will be KDDI/au, while the net loser will be DoCoMo (the jury is still out on Vodafone/SoftBank Mobile). At least some are attributing this pending negative migration to mere probability – as the carrier with the largest customer base, they argue, DoCoMo naturally stand to lose the biggest number of churners – all things being equal. But this analysis is weak and WWJ thinks..
