Network Technology
Network Technology

Network Technology

Brazil Adopts Japan Digital TV Standard

Brazil has selected a HD digital television system based on a Japanese standard for its more than 120 million television viewers, instead of the standards used in Europe and the United States. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday signed a decree authorizing the use of the Japanese standard in a ceremony attended by Japanese Communications Minister, Heizo Takenaka. The new system is expected be operational within seven years and the transition to digital television from the current analog model will occur over 10 years, the presidential press office said in a statement.

DoCoMo Testing 2.5Gbit Wireless Network

According to a recent report, DoCoMo is testing a new network standard that could send DVDs to handheld devices in about 10 seconds! The prototype uses a combination of Multiple In Multiple Out (Mimo) technology and a tweaked version of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and is capable of delivering 2.5Gbits/sec to users travelling at 20Km per hour. Mimo, which is used in a the draft 802.11n Wifi standard and turbo versions of existing Wifi products, uses a combination of several antennas and clever processing to boost data rates.

Vodafone K.K. Announces Nokia WLAN Handsets

In a rush of press releases from the local carriers today, the news from Vodafone K.K. that it plans to offer two new mobile business devices in autumn 2006 was notable. Both devices, manufactured by Nokia, will run on Vodafone K.K.’s 3G network and on wireless LANs. They are based on the Nokia E60 and E61 models, which are currently available for enterprise customers in Europe and Asia.

We talked about the entry of Nokia e-series business devices back in October 2005; looks like a year later it will finally happen!

World First Mass-producible Polymeric UWB Antenna

Omron announced that it will introduce a new SMD Polymeric Antenna for short-range, wireless Ultra-Wideband (UWB) applications. Product launch is scheduled for June 1, 2006. UWB is a recently commercialized short-range wireless technology, expected to be widely adopted in consumer goods. Applied in dongles, personal computers, printers, mobile telephones, digital televisions and DVD players, UWB functions as a low-power-consuming wireless USB (universal serial bus), allowing users to transfer large amounts of data rapidly between various devices in close range.

Softbank to Improve Network

According to a report by the Nikkei, carried on Reuters, Softbank Corp. will spend about 250 billion yen this business year on improving the Japan mobile phone business it has agreed to buy from Vodafone Group Plc. The investment would be more than the 215 billion yen Vodafone Japan spent a year earlier, the newspaper said.

EU Presses Japan on Galileo GPS

In just four years, Europe will bring about a sea change in the world of car and man navigation, which has long depended on a single service source, the American global positioning system. As the continent prepares for the full operational launch of Galileo, its own version of GPS, the European Union and industry are watching with keen interest to see how Japan, a heavy GPS user, eventually positions itself. “Japan would be a very good test market for Galileo because there are many people using mobile phones and people who like gadgets,” Paul Flament, administrator of the Galileo Program at the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, said.