Carriers
Carriers

Carriers

Suica Comes Pre-Installed on KDDI

KDDI and Japan Rail have announced their new campaign to help encourage AU customers with the adoption of Suica. The summer handset series includes six models which have the RFID application pre-installed in an effort to enable users to start using their handsets a the preferred payment device at Suica enabled locations. We’d say that’s a full swing opposite from early days when JR required folks to have a View credit-card in order to get Suica onto their phones!

DoCoMo Establishes Subsidiary in Shanghai

According to this press prelease, NTT DOCOMO has established DOCOMO China Co., Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China. DOCOMO China will focus mainly on providing mobile solutions for corporate customers, especially locally based Japanese companies. The office is expected to begin operating from the end of July, once the necessary governmental and commercial approvals have been obtained.

SoftBank Announces iPhone Service Plans

As the hype anticipation builds, Softbank Mobile has released the the applicable subscription plan details for Apple’s 3G iPhone. According to this announcement, purchase of iPhone 3G 8GB model will run approximately 23,000jpy, or 960jpy month over 2-year term and unlimited data packet usage is priced at 5,985jpy per month. The package provided will be their popular ‘White Plan’ offering free domestic voice calls between SoftBank handsets from 1:00 to 21:00 and a SoftBank original mail service with receipt notification ‘Email’ for free.

Taiwan Group to Work with KDDI

Taiwan-based Shin Kong Financial Group plans to cooperate with KDDI for joint investment in Asia Pacific Broadband Telecom, a fixed-line/3G mobile telecommunication operator in Taiwan, to become the largest shareholder, according to this post on DigiTimes. Both KDDI and APBT adopt CDMA2000 for their 3G operation, a reason for Shin Kong to invite KDDI to jointly invest, the sources noted.

KDDI Rolls Summer 2008 Handset Series

KDDI announced 12 new handset models, for the Summer 2008 season, with a keen focus on sports, style and video. The latest series lineup features three designs from Kyocera plus two Sanyo branded devices, two from Toshiba and one from each Hitachi, Sharp, Casio, Sony Ericsson and Pantech. The company has also launched a Mobile Fashion portal and introduced their new Lismo Video service, with 2,000 titles including full length hollywood films, which is available this month on 14 models.

DoCoMo Announces Mobile to PC Service

DoCoMo will launch a new service called Pocket U which will enable subscribers to view and browse, from anywhere, content such as video, music, image and text files stored in their home PCs via mobile phones as of June 6, 2008.

Customers will require a flat-rate data plan and subscription to the Pocket U service will run an extra $5 per month. Apparently a VPN will be used to prevent third-party users from pretending to be subscribers of the service.