DoCoMo announced today that it has agreed with MontaVista Software Inc., a U.S. developer of Linux software for teleco equipment and mobile handsets, to invest $3 million in newly issued preferred stock for an equity stake in the company. DoCoMo has already introduced products equipped with MontaVista Linux. DoCoMo hopes the investment will allow it to efficiently improve and develop its Linux product offering.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s leading mobile communications provider, and Mobile TeleSystems OJSC, the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, today announced that have formed an exclusive strategic partnership under which MTS will launch i-mode in Russia and other CIS countries. As a result of this agreement, i-mode will become available through 13 operations. This long-term agreement, signed today by these two leading mobile operators, will allow MTS to offer i-mode services to its in Russia via its GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks, with DoCoMo providing its brand name, know-how and technology. MTS plans to introduce i-mode in Russia before December 2005.
DoCoMo said today that this past summer they successfully achieved a 1-Gbps high-speed packet transmission (downlink) in a laboratory experiment using fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication radio access equipment, and are considering field experiments early in 2005. DoCoMo achieved 100- and 20-Mbps data rates in the downlink and uplink, respectively, in outdoor environments at a moving speed of about 30 km/h in July 2003.
DoCoMo has introduced the N900iG [.jpg image], the first 3G FOMA handset compatible in approximately 115 countries/regions. The handset goes on sale 25 December 2004. N900iG users who want to use the handset abroad must subscribe to DoCoMo’s World Wing 3G roaming service for i-mode packet communications, videophone, SMS and voice calls in other countries/regions.
Reuters is reporting that NTT DoCoMo is close to signing a deal with Russia’s mobile phone firm Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) to license i-mode, potentially boosting MTS’s revenues, sources close to the matter said to Reuters. A cooperation agreement between the two firms will be signed on Friday, a different source in Moscow had said, without giving further details.
Vodafone just announced the signing of a new Partner Network Agreement, which makes SmarTone Vodafone’s exclusive partner in Hong Kong. SmarTone will re-brand its business to SmarTone-Vodafone, bringing the Vodafone brand into Hong Kong’s (significant) mobile market. Under the agreement, both companies will co-operate in developing and offering products and services, through the SmarTone-Vodafone brand, to international travellers and domestic customers.
