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editors

DoCoMo to Acquire Singapore ISP

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company has agreed to make a 100% acquisition of inter-touch (BVI) Limited, a Singapore-based holding company of Internet providers who supply high-speed broadband connections and applications for business travelers at hotels across Asia-Pacific, Europe etc. The total purchase price will be US$70 million. inter-touch has capital in the amount of US$15.6 million. The company was established in 1998 and employs about 120 people.

Korea's Mobile Internet Boom

Just as Korea has set the pace in the development of the fixed-line Internet sector, the nation is also leading the world in the wireless Internet segment, according to a government report. The National Internet Development Agency (NIDA) on Thursday said that 40.2 percent of Korean cell phone owners use wireless Internet regularly, up almost 4 percentage points from last year. Broken down by gender, the report showed 41.4 percent of female respondents logged onto the wireless Internet on a regular basis compared to 39.3 percent of males.

Dai Nippon Printing Uses ARM Technology to Develop Java Card OS

Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd. (DNP), one of the world’s largest printing companies, and ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY; LSE: ARM), today announced that DNP has developed a evaluation version of a Java Card(TM) OS based on the ARM(R) SecurCore(TM) SC200(TM) processor. Embedded with a multi-tasking kernel, DNP’s Java Card OS can run real-time multiple applications, on a priority basis, with maximum security. The Java Card OS can be developed as an embedded security device for server, multimedia mobile phones, and the sample product will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2005.

Cell-Phone Soap Opera a Cool New Genre

Love comes to the really, really small screen in a mobile, only-in-Japan, soap opera made exclusively for KDDI 3G cellys. The live-action soap opera, Yokohama 80s, follows the predictable lives, loves, and losses of young, beach-loving Japanese boys and girls back when Madonna was still Like a Virgin. Eighties’ big hair, big shoulders, and big hits have been downsized to tiny, two-and-a-half-minute broadcast bites. The story is adapted from Shogakan Shukan’s weekly Big Comic Spirits-series “Tokyo Eighties” (published as a serial manga) but features all-new original characters and storylines by the same author. Can the mobile laundry soap commercials be far behind?

Telco's Form Bridge Mobile Alliance

Seven leading Asia-Pacific mobile operators, including Ayala-owned Globe Telecom, are investing $30 to $40 million over three years to form the region’s largest joint venture mobile company, with a potential customer base of over 300 million. The regional mobile alliance, Bridge Mobile, will be the commercial vehicle in which the seven operators jointly invest to build and establish a regional mobile infrastructure and common service platform.