DoCoMo Far EasTone 3G Taiwan Launch
DoCoMo is pushing its blend of W-CDMA into Taiwan with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., according to a press release today, with Big-D tightening up EasTone’s network from next week to September this year.
Asia Pacific Market
Little Smart: PHS Mobility in China
With some 270 million mobile subscribers, China is now the world’s largest mobile market. Faced with long waits and high fees for land-line installation, many Chinese consumers naturally opted for cellular service instead: mobile subscriber numbers surged to pass fixed-line users last year. Personal Handyphone System (PHS) that had been tried, without much success, in Japan was retooled for the Chinese market by an obscure US-based company called UTStarcom (Nasdaq: UTSI) and rechristened “Personal Access System” (PAS).
Omron to establish LCD Backlight Design Center in Hong Kong Science Park
Omron Corporation will establish a design center tentatively named the Hong Kong Design Center in Hong Kong Science Park (Pak Shek Kok, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, http://www.hkstp.org/) to handle LCD backlight design and development. Initially it will concentrate on design/development of compact size backlights for mobile phones aimed at the China and Taiwan markets. Omron plans to begin operation of the design center from July 1, 2004 with a 10-person structure utilizing locally hired employees. Omron also plans to prepare a design/development framework positioned as a design center in FY 2005 for large size television backlights aimed at the China and Taiwan markets.
Siemens, Huawei Sign 3G Joint Venture
Shenzhen Huawei Technology Co. Ltd., one of China’s leading telecom equipment manufacturers, and Siemens Mobile signed a contract Thursday to build a joint-venture to develop products based on the TD-SCDMA standard. Over 100 million US dollars will be injected into the project. Siemens will hold a 51 percent stake and Huawei 49 percent.
NEC's Card Mobile's for China
Surprise! NEC’s new card mobile phone is just going on sale in the China market. Japan’s number one cellie maker certainly appears to be spreading its wings in China these days, even if, or perhaps because things aren’t looking too pretty at the moment in the UK.
Japan, China to Launch 4G Joint Research
The government-affiliated Communications Research Laboratory and private-sector companies will team up with Chinese research institutions and firms this autumn on a project to develop a technology standard for 4G mobile telephony, sources familiar with the matter said. NTT Communications Corp, KDDI Corp, Hitachi, Ltd, NEC Corp and Fujitsu Ltd will also be among the Japanese participants.