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editors

KDDI vs. DoCoMo: FOMA Forging On?

Last Friday’s monthly report released by the Telecommunications Carriers Association contained more grief for NTT DoCoMo’s 3G planners: While the carrier’s FOMA subscriber base grew by a healthy 15% in February, bolstered no doubt by the 900i-series handsets, KDDI yet again handily beat DoCoMo. While we aren’t reviewing our measure of confidence in the 900i-series, even after Big D admitted that the “best 3G phones in the world” were suffering from software bugs and had to recall nearly 70,000 Fujitsu handsets, we do note that NTT DoCoMo in Kyushu ‘fessed up last Friday to padding its subs figures so as to avoid the distinction of being the first DoCoMo sales region to actually suffer a (Gasp! Grrr!) net decrease in subscribers, according to Kyodo.

Cellphone: A Way of Life in Japan

In search of a chic cafe hidden in the neon alleys of a teeming Tokyo business district, Mr Hiroki Wai activated the global positioning system on his cellphone and punched in the cafe’s phone number. A satellite in the Earth’s orbit charted his progress on a full-colour street grid displayed on the screen of his cellphone. ‘Now turn left; now turn right, walk straight ahead…Hurray, you’re here!’ the voice chirped from his receiver.

DoCoMo Develops Speech Recognition

NTT DoCoMo Inc. demonstrated a couple of the technologies the operator is working on, including a speech recognition system that doesn’t require speech. The system, which is still a prototype, works by measuring the electrical activity in muscles that are used when a person speaks using a system called electromyography (EMG). This means the user still has to mouth the words as if they are being spoken but audible speech itself isn’t necessary.

DoCoMo's Paradigm: Flat Rate Forces Shift

DoCoMo's Paradigm: Flat Rate Forces ShiftLast Friday’s NTT DoCoMo press briefing was an eye-opener as President Keichi Tachikawa hinted at the tectonic changes reshaping Japan’s mobile data market. After reviewing the company’s stance on US W-CDMA launch after the AT&T Wireless sale, he offered some insight into the giant carrier’s plans for dealing with the the flat-rate data pricing “paradigm shift” instituted, he alleged, “too early” by an unnamed player (which would be arch rival KDDI). Finishing after just 10 minutes, Tachikawa’s comments were brief, but the ensuing half hour of Q&A with the press offered a golden opportunity to quiz the prez on these and other issues—including e-commerce, 3G subscriber numbers, and FOMA handsets. If you want to know what Japan’s #1 mobile operator is thinking, don’t miss this program. Program Run-time 20:17

Fujitsu FOMA 3G Foulup

Apart from being $12.8 billion in debt for reasons they possibly don’t understand, Fujitsu’s FOMA foray has fumbled as DoCoMo announced today that the Feb. 6 released Fujitsu 900i has a software problem that affects nearly 70,000 of the handsets sold so far. (Is that ALL of them?) The handsets, according to DoCoMo may have “difficulties in automatically receiving incoming e-mail under certain circumstances….” for example, when you want to read them, perhaps?