Fujitsu Laboratories has announced that they have conducted successful field testing for LTE using 4×4 MIMO. The trials, in collaboration with DoCoMo, took place in Hokkaido and resulted in wireless data transmissions in the range of 120 Mbps (using 10 MHz bandwidth) in Sapporo’s urban environment. This would be equivalent to 240 Mbps throughput using the 20 MHz maximum bandwidth that LTE allows.
Clearwire has announced that William Morrow will replace Benjamin Wolff as chief executive. Mr. Morrow served in various telecom roles including Vodafone K.K. as President of the company when it exited the Japanese market [video here]. Clearwire is backed by a swath of media, tech and telecom companies, including Sprint Nextel, Time Warner, Google and Comcast, with the goal of constructing a cutting-edge wireless network.
In another step forward for machine to machine connectivity, and fixed-mobile convergence, the folks at Sony held a press conference in Tokyo this week to parade their upcoming big-screen television offerings. The announced KDL-series full HD LCD models on show, ranging from 32″ to 52″ and approx. $1,500 to $4,500 respectively, will be shipping this April with the Felica RFID reader/writer embedded in the remote control. Soon we will see Japanese handsets enabling transactions through the TV!
According to this announcement, SoftBank Corp. booked a 37% decrease for YoY net profits in the third quarter to Dec. 31st 2008. Net sales in the mobile communications segment dipped 5.7% while operating income in that category was off by 8.8%. For their fiscal year ending March 31st, the company kept the profit forecast unchanged at 340 billion yen, or approx. $3.7Bn, which would reflect a nearly 5% gain on the previous year. More details after the jump..
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.
According to local media reports DoCoMo will market a dedicated e-photo frame, with it’s own email address, by spring this year. Apparently the LCD screen of the prototype developed in-house, sorry we could not find an image, is slightly larger than a postcard. The unit can store up to 1,000 photos, has a slide-show function while voice messages and video images also can be sent to the frame from a mobile phone. The estimated retail price is 20,000jpy or about $220usd.
