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Fujitsu Develops Breakthrough Technology for Mobile Base Station Amplifiers

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the development of a technology that enables low-cost production of gallium-nitride(GaN)(*1) highelectron mobility transistors(HEMT)(*2), a key technology in mobile base station amplifiers for 3G and beyond. This breakthrough technology reduces GaN HEMT production costs to less than one-third that of conventional levels, thereby contributing to the realization of lower-cost GaN HEMT-based amplifiers. The technology is designed to enable practical use of compact, more energy-efficient mobile base stations using GaN HEMT. Details of this technology were presented at the International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) 2004 held in San Francisco last week.

KDDI Music Downloads: $70mn Annual Revenue?

According to a 15 December report on IT Media (Japanese), KDDI’s Chaku-uta Full music download service has achieved over 360,000 downloads in the first 3 weeks — great results based on only about 200,000 supporting handsets. A keen WWJ reader has taken this data and extrapolated into the future to estimate that the 3G music service could be generating revenues of US $70 million annually after 2 years — and that’s assuming very conservative terminal penetration.

Casio's Opera-Browser 3G Phone

Opera has announced that the BREW-based Casio W21CA [.jpg image] mobile phone with the Opera browser has shipped and is now available in Tokyo stores. This is the first phone deployed since Opera’s agreement with KDDI in August, fulfilling their promise to deliver Opera’s Web browser to KDDI’s 3G network in Japan. The Casio W21CA makes Opera the first full Web browser active on the Japanese 3G network.

DoCoMo and MTS Form Strategic i-mode Partnership

NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s leading mobile communications provider, and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that have formed an exclusive strategic partnership under which MTS will launch i-mode in Russia and other CIS countries. As a result of this agreement, i-mode will become available through 13 operations. This long-term agreement, signed today by these two leading mobile operators, will allow MTS to offer i-mode services to its in Russia via its GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks, with DoCoMo providing its brand name, know-how and technology. MTS plans to introduce i-mode in Russia before December 2005.

DoCoMo Tests 4G Speed

DoCoMo said today that this past summer they successfully achieved a 1-Gbps high-speed packet transmission (downlink) in a laboratory experiment using fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication radio access equipment, and are considering field experiments early in 2005. DoCoMo achieved 100- and 20-Mbps data rates in the downlink and uplink, respectively, in outdoor environments at a moving speed of about 30 km/h in July 2003.

ESPN Coming to Japan Mobile

ESPN and The Walt Disney Internet Group are to launch the Japanese version of X Games Mobile, a new content-based service for wireless consumers. KDDI and Vodafone have agreed to make X Games Mobile available to their customers. X Games Mobile will offer X Games-branded content including news and information, screensavers, ring tones, wallpaper, photos, logos, and streaming audio and video.