According to Bloomberg, KDDI announced their first-quarter profit rose 9 percent with net income climbing to 82.5 billion yen ($682 million), or 18,483 yen a share, in the three months ended June 30, from 75.6 billion yen, or 17,296 yen, a year earlier. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, climbed 16 percent to 140.9 billion yen.
According to Reuters, UK-based O2 and Australia’s Telstra Corp. said on Tuesday they would end NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode Internet phone service. Mobile phone operator O2, which is owned by Spain’s Telefonica said the limited range of devices that carried the service had restricted its growth. O2 will continue to support the service for the next two years but will not launch any new i-mode handsets from July 2007, it said.
Several mainstream media reports indicate the powerful earthquake which struck northern Japan on Monday has caused disruption to communications services in the country. The earthquake struck just off the coast of Niigata prefecture, the magnitude 6.8 quake registered an intensity of 6+ on Japan’s scale of 0 to 7, in three locations. As a result of the temblor major telecommunications carriers have imposed restrictions on phone calls into and out of the affected area.
NextWave Wireless announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all shares of IPMobile held by Mori Trust Co., Ltd., of Japan. Upon closing of the transaction, NextWave will hold a 69.2% stake in IPMobile. The agreement is subject to required government approvals. IPMobile has been working with IPWireless towards a commercial launch of a TD-CDMA wireless broadband network by November of this year. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
According to Kyodo news, Japan Communications has asked the Ministry to weigh in on its stalled negotiations to use DoCoMo’s network. Japan Communications, which has taken the action under the Telecommunications Business Law, is Japan’s first mobile virtual network operator and currently offers wireless data communications services using Willcom’s PHS network.
DoCoMo introduced their 704i-series of eight 3G FOMA handsets, as mentioned yesterday, featuring a range of models from Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Mitsubishi and the LG Chocolate design. The F704i, SO704i, N704iμ and P704iμ will be available this month while the D704i and SH704i will go on sale by the end of August. The P704i will be launched by the end of September and we’ll have to wait for that LG sweetness until sometime in October. Specs and images after the jump.
