The Government is considering a relatively new standard known as TDD (time division duplex) as a technology that up to three new providers could use to operate high-speed, 3G networks. If licenses are granted, it would spell new competition for NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp and Vodafone KK. So far, three companies including Japan’s largest broadband operator, Softbank Corp, have expressed interest in obtaining licenses to run TDD networks.
The model that many customers have been waiting for, NEC’s version of the 900i, are to go on sale on Feb. 22, NEC and DoCoMo said today. Meanwhile, DoCoMo has said it’s going to show FOMA off at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 in France next week with a direct link to Japan. Excitement is growing about the 900i series, with informal impressions collected by WWJ, plus hard evidence that we’ve heard from InfoPLANT indicating that NEC’s 900i could be a smash hit.
Nepro Japan published results of a survey of mobile phone users about services and functions. According to the survey, the most wanted function is a TV, as about 40% of the respondents pointed to it. In response to a question regarding “functions desirable for future mobile phones” (multiple answers allowed), “TV” (43%), “dictionaries” (35%) and “keys” (29%) were the top three. Functions such as “electronic wallet” (25%) and “TV phone” (24%) did not attract many supporters.
Mazda and Toyota today announced that they have reached a basic agreement on providing Mazda owners with G-BOOK, a Toyota-developed network information service. Mazda aims to introduce this service from 2005. Toyota began providing the G-BOOK service to Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. last August and has already announced similar agreements with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.
We guessed right!. DoCoMo’s fantastic FOMA 900i series start rolling into the shops, beginning with the fabulous Fujitsu, on this coming Friday. DoCoMo has just released the info. officially today in the following press release. Also note that we have some great video coverage of the December launch press conference unveiling the 900i handsets coming up later in the month.
As mentioned in previous stories and our recent video report, Sony and DoCoMo have been busy setting up FeliCa Networks Inc. to develop the companies’ mobile FeliCa IC that will, we think, lead to the massive expansion of the mobile phone as a do-all contactless payment device. Sony announced today that it has firmed up the FeliCa Networks company organization with Takeshi Natsuno (“Mr. i-mode”) as one of the directors.
