The number of Internet users in Japan accessing from cellphones exceeded those using it from personal computers in 2005, according to a government report published Tuesday. At the end of the year there were 69.2 million people using the Internet from mobile devices, compared to 66 million conventional PC users, the Ministry of Information and Communications’ annual “Information and Communications in Japan” white paper said.
Elementary schools will test GPS/cellphones (KDDI/au models) that track kids every six seconds and have various alerts and warning functions. The system, which has been set up with a company called ITFOR, will be tested through next March at three schools affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University, before being expanded to about 100 others.
Passengers on the famous Japanese Shinkansen “bullet trains” will be able to surf the Internet while traveling at 300 kilometers per hour, thanks to a new service planned by the railway operator. But there’s going to be quite a wait until the first wireless LAN-equipped trains arrive at the platform. Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai), which operates the Shinkansen service between Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka, said it plans to offer wireless Internet service throughout all cars of its new N700-series trains in early 2009.
Softbank president Masayoshi Son expressed confidence that the Softbank group will outdo NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan’s mobile phone service market. The Softbank group, including Yahoo Japan, has been stronger than rivals such as NTT DoCoMo in Internet services, Son told its first general meeting of shareholders since the Internet investor acquired the Japan unit of British mobile phone company Vodafone in April.
NTT DoCoMo has issued a press release stating that users of their 3G FOMA service surpassed the 2G Mova subscriber base as of 18 June. In fact, big D pulled into the lead for most 3G users per carrier in January and the over-all percentage of 3G mobile contracts in Japan became the majority in February.
The Ministry of Communications is studying making it mandatory for telecommunications service providers to allow other telecom firms access to their wireless communications networks in the year to March 2008, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported without citing sources. With the move, the ministry aims to bring more competition to a market that is dominated by NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp and the Softbank Corp group, the business daily said.
Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s largest electronics conglomerate, said on Wednesday it plans to launch full-scale wireless tag operations, targeting a 16 percent share of the $3.5 billion domestic market in the next four years. Hitachi, which first developed an IC tag in 2001, has forecast 9.7 trillion yen in consolidated sales in the year to March 2007.
As in many countries with an experienced online population, and borne out by recent data from Video Research Ltd., internet usage in Japan is higher than usage of all other types of media besides television. Mobile ad revenue is also keeping pace with online advertising in general, although it has dipped down somewhat from the boom year of 2004.
Japan’s University of Tsukuba is is working with Nortel to create a wireless mesh network which will cover a 230,000 sq metre area of the campus and enable outdoor broadband wireless access to the public internet and the university network. Nortel business partner Marubeni Solutions is handling network implementation.
A blast of press releases from all three mobile operators in Japan came though just now stating: “NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries, KDDI Corporation, Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company, and Vodafone K.K. today announced the basic procedures for customers to switch mobile phone operators under the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) system, which is scheduled for implementation by November 1, 2006.” (WWJ subscribers log in for details.)
