SoftBank Mobile have just issued a press release [.PDF in Japanese] announcing that four of their recently unveiled handsets – the 910T, 810SH, 811SH and 705P – will commence sales nationwide on Saturday, 7 October. The update has not been posted on their new website as of this moment, however we do look forward to seeing them come up to speed there as the old vodafone.jp site now resolves to softbankmobile.co.jp.
WWJ Editors, 28 September 2006
The long summer silence from SoftBank on the rebranding of Vodafone K.K. to SoftBank Mobile is over with no less than 12 press releases issued today in advance of the official launch on 1 October. The company has introduced 13 new handsets, a variety of updated service offerings and new personnel. As mobile number portability (MNP) arrives on 24 October, and with strong competition from market leader NTT DoCoMo and No. 2 carrier KDDI, the struggling former Vodafone franchise clearly needed to get their house in order.
Some little-known news: Industry insiders here were surprised to learn in late August that the long-time head of Qualcomm Japan, Ted Matsumoto, had moved over to SoftBank taking on the title of CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) for Masayoshi Son’s newly minted celco. The official announcement was made during a wide ranging press conference that also introduced Cameron Diaz as the star attraction for their new advertising campaign that planned to blitz TV and outdoor ads over the coming weeks.
On the network front, they have announced that ‘Super 3G’ (HSDPA), with availability limited to the greater Tokyo area, will start in October to service their new HTC – X01HT smartphone. This Windows Mobile-enabled unit will default to regular W-CDMA (or GSM/GPRS overseas) in areas without high-speed coverage. The company also announced new applications and services ranging from the widely expected Yahoo Mobile Search integration, “Hot Talk” instant messenger, a “3D Town” event guide map, and – finally – a “Live Monitor” scrolling text push service.
NTT DoCoMo announced today that starting September 29, they will market the FOMA M2501 HIGH-SPEED PCMCIA Type II data card [ .jpg image ] for speedy mobile packet transmissions with PCs. Downlink speeds of up to 3.6Mbps are available in HSDPA service areas in Japan. The card works on W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS networks.
Japan’s Softbank plans to raise about $12 billion by securitizing earnings of the cell phone unit it bought from Vodafone Group, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday, allowing it to secure funds at a lower rate than with conventional loans. Earlier this year, Softbank bought Vodafone Japan for 1.8 trillion yen ($15.4 billion) after borrowing 1.3 trillion yen in short-term bridge loans, arranged by 17 banks led by Mizuho Financial Group, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.
Opera Software and KDDI have announced a renewal of their commitment to include the Opera mobile browser on KDDI’s 3G handsets in Japan. KDDI and Opera first entered into a partnership in August 2004 to fulfill the promise of 3G capabilities in Japan, and the browser has since been included on 27 KDDI phones.
Airspan Networks announced on Thursday they had completed a WiMAX network optimization program with Yozan of Tokyo, Japan. Airspan began this project back in July and the testing period last month. As of 1 September, Yozan had over 100 WiMAX base stations operating in five major regions and the company is said to be planning to launch corporate targeted web services next month.
