U.S Market
U.S Market

U.S Market

i-Mode's Owner in Hold Mode on Cingular

At last week’s regular press conference, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa managed to confirm most of what we wrote about in last week’s WWJ Viewpoint DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA?. Most importantly, someone in the U.S. is still obligated to roll out third-gen W-CDMA services because this was grandfathered into DoCoMo’s original contract with AT&T Wireless. Tachikawa said last week that the phones have already been ordered! However, DoCoMo is still in hold mode about how it will approach the purchase of its stake in AT&T Wireless Services by Cingular Wireless LLC (should the deal be approved later in the year). One option on the table is for DoCoMo to invest in Cingular.

DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA UPDATE

At yesterday’s regular press conference, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa managed to confirm most of what we wrote about last week in our viewpoint DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA? Most importantly, someone in the U.S. is still obligated to roll out W-CDMA because this was grandfathered into DoCoMo’s original contract with AT&T. Tachikawa said yesterday that the phones have already been ordered! We’ll have more details on Monday.

DoCoMo Ducks Friday 13 Deadline?

For some strange reason NTT DoCoMo seems reluctant to sink more cash into loss-making AT&T Wireless – the most grumbled about carrier in the North American market – two years after seeing the value of its $8 billion investment in the “struggling” carrier come to zilch. At least DoCoMo has a footprint in the U.S. market, well one anyway, a demonstration room with a FOMA (Freedom tO Move Away from AT&T?) base station.

Lucent Announces 3G Trial in Miami

Lucent Technologies today announced that it is working with AT&T Wirelessto deploy a third-generation (3G) W-CDMA trial network in the greater Miami area to evaluate mobile voice and high-speed data services. Lucent already has achieved several key milestones in the project — its first 3G W-CDMA deployment in North America — including the successful completion of a series of voice and data calls on the network.

RealNetworks Airs Wireless Service

RealNetworks on Monday unveiled RealOne for SprintPCS, its first streaming media service to wireless phones, in the company’s latest move to boost its subscription revenue. The move marks the first time a branded, audio and slide-show service with major content brands has been launched on a big U.S. wireless carrier, RealNetworks said. For RealNetworks, the product marks the most significant push by the company yet to move its streaming media services from PCs onto portable devices such as phones.

AT&T Wireless Moves Ahead With 3G Network

AT&T Wireless today announced agreements with Nortel Networks and Ericsson to deploy what is expected to be the first commercial W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple band Access) wireless network in North America. The W-CDMA network can support high speed VPN access, audio and video applications, as well as advanced location-based and m-Commerce features.

NEC America Releases HDM Handset

NEC Corporation today announced, through its subsidiary NEC America, a leading provider of innovative communications products, solutions and services, the launch of its 515 High Definition Mobile+ (HDM) handset to be sold through AT&T Wireless retail outlets. This exclusive relationship offers the benefit of AT&T Wireless’ powerful network combined with NEC’s global experience in handset development and manufacturing. Available to U.S. consumers on July 28, the 515 HDM will serve as a premiere gaming handset delivering both enhanced game play capabilities and multimedia messaging.

NEC to Re-Enter U.S. Mobile Phone Market

Electronics conglomerate NEC Corp. said on Wednesday it would re-enter the U.S. mobile phone market this summer with the popular Internet-ready handsets that have made it Japan’s top cellphone supplier. “We’ll be supplying Internet-enabled phones from this summer, and plan to announce further details in the United States on July 22,” an NEC spokeswoman said.

USA: Better than Europe for i-mode?

In the US, data speeds rock: “With my Sprint PCS service I’ve had long downloads with speeds of 59 to 84.4 kbps. In a video test I had a burst of up to 104 kbps.” But is culture significant? “People in the United States have less trouble talking to each other than do people in Japan – many teenagers here actually prefer sending mail to talking, not only because it’s cheaper, but because it’s easier for them to say what they want to say.”