NEC just announced that it supplied the Mobile Internet Platform for O2’s forthcoming i-mode service; operations are scheduled to start this autumn in the UK and Ireland. “We are pleased with NEC as the provider of our i-mode platform, which we believe will offer our customers a whole range of new data services when we launch – furthering O2’s data services leadership position in our markets,” said Dave Williams, Group CTO of O2.
Dilithium Networks, the leading supplier of 3G multimedia solutions, announced today that Vodafone Spain has selected the DTG 2000 multimedia gateway for delivery of enhanced 3G services across mobile and IP networks. The system will extend the capabilities of Vodafone Spain’s 3G mobile network and enable seamless real time conversational video telephony calling to personal computers over broadband networks. The advent of 3G video telephony services are an important differentiator to 3G operators planning to migrate their user base to higher revenue generating services. The DTG 2000 performs all the necessary negotiation and mediation between network entities and client devices to allow effortless communications across network boundaries.
NTT DoCoMo just announced that Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (MTS), NTT DoCoMo’s partner in Russia, began offering i-mode services in the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas as of today. Services will eventually be expanded to other business areas of MTS. Russia’s i-mode is being offered via MTS’s GPRS network and represents the twelfth global market for i-mode, following Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Australia and Israel (in order of introduction). MTS is Russia’s leading mobile operator both in terms of subscribers and profitability, according to the DoCoMo press release.
Toshiba Corp. is to reintroduce 2G mobile phones in the European market in October to benefit from strong local demand for such handsets, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, citing company sources. Toshiba has been overhauling its overseas cell phone business as part of efforts to reduce losses from the handset division. In fiscal 2004, the company withdrew from the 2G handset business in North America and China because of poor local sales.
O2 has promised its new found love for the i-mode data platform won’t see it kill off its own portal, O2 Active, which is based on WAP. Grahame Riddell, O2’s head of mobile data marketing, said the network has no plans to kill off O2 Active. “We will continue to support O2 Active and enhance its capabilities going forward,” he said. However, i-mode will be sold as the ‘premium’ data service alongside SMS.
Japanese telco NEC and Siemens Communications announced that they are assisting Hutchison 3G Ireland in deploying its W-CDMA/UMTS 3G network. The announcement represents the eighth Hutchison 3G network deployment that NEC and Siemens have been involved in. NEC and Siemens are the suppliers of 3G network solutions to Hutchison 3G in Austria, Hong Kong, Italy and the UK as well.
