Japan Market

DoCoMo Reduces Interconnection Fees

March 3, 2009 September 30, 2023

DoCoMo announced that it has notified the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that the fees it charges other operators to interconnect with its network have been reduced by more than 10 percent, effective immediately and applied retroactively to all interconnections since April 1, 2008. Perhaps related to this news from September last year, that the company had been over charging for international roaming, the full details of their updated billing structure is explained within several .pdfs which accompany the press release.

Japanese Kids Mobile Usage Survey

February 24, 2009 September 30, 2023

Japanese Kids Mobile Usage Survey The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released the results of their “investigation about use of a child’s cellular phone” survey which was conducted late last year. With replies coming from a total of 10,448 people, ranging in age from elementary school through high school, it’s a wide ranging report with a significant amount of user data, all in Japanese. It’s a real eye-opener on mobile youth usage behavior so we cranked out a quick machine translation, to cover the key points, after the jump.

UQ Communications Rolling 4G WiMax

February 3, 2009 September 30, 2023

The KDDI led consortia, UQ Communications, is geared up for commercial launch later this month in all 23 Tokyo wards, Yokohama and Kawasaki with Nagoya and Osaka coming online in June. The monthly flat-rate access fee is noted at 4,480jpy, or about $40, and will be available for free until June 30th. They also indicate that “UQ Wi-Fi” service will be made freely available on the Shinkansen for some commercial clients as of March and all customers as of September. The group, including Intel, JR East, Kyocera and several banks, formed in September 2007 and gained official approval from the ministry for the 2.5GHz spectrum a few months later.

Spring Comes Early at KDDI

January 30, 2009 September 30, 2023

KDDI has announced 10 new models for their Spring 2009 line-up. It’s a promising looking collection with a most notable model by Hitachi, the WOOO touting world firsts for the 3D viewing function, that looks very cool in person, and 3.3 inch VGA organic EL display. More details after the jump >>

Japan Telecom Hardware Sales Dropping

January 15, 2009 September 30, 2023

The Communications and Information Network Association of Japan – CIAJ – has released a report on mid-term demand for telecom equipment with a gloomy, though predictable, forcast. While exports have been holding YoY results, domestic sales are expected to slip about 14 percent in fiscal 2008. According to their research, confirming widely held industry views, the rapid drop in demand for handsets resulting from the newly implemented sales plan, which raised handset prices has produced this so-called negative growth effect.

Majority of 911 Calls Via Mobile

January 10, 2009 September 30, 2023

According to this article on the Mainichi Shimbun, National Police Agency figures released for 2008 show that over 63 percent of calls for emergency services in Japan come from mobile phones. Results showed that a total of 5,165,795 calls were made from mobile phones, up 1.5 percent from the same period the previous year and the biggest year-on-year increase for the period.

In order to trace the source of mobile phone calls, which are harder to track than land line calls, police in 21 prefectures, including the Metropolitan Police Department, have introduced location data reporting systems, with police in 10 other prefectures, including Aomori, planning to buy similar systems by the end of June this year.