Next-generation telephone services — collectively: 3G — are finally turning the corner on profitability in Japan after years of loss-making investment. Pyramid Research says this will the the year for high speed telephone data networks in Japan as subscribers are beginning to buy seriously into 3G technology.
Telstra expects more than one million Australians will pay $500 for new handsets, plus an extra $10-$17 per month for content, when the telco launches its own version of the i-mode mobile phone content service before Christmas. The Australian carrier became the first telco in the English-speaking world to sign up with the Japanese telco, NTT DoCoMo, which claims 41 million subscribers for the service in its own country.
At the BREW 2004 Developer Conference in San Diego, awards to honor stand-out BREW products and services were announced in six categories. EZFM and EZ Naviwalk won 1st prize in the Best Entertainment and Best Location-Based categories, respectively. Other Japanese entries from Edia Co., MediaSeek Inc., and Namco were selected as finalists in the information, entertainment and productivity categories.
NEC’s Mobile Internet Platform and i-mode Mobile Handset to Operate at COSMOTE i-mode Service in Greece. NEC Corporation and its subsidiary NEC Italia s.r.l today announced the delivery of its Mobile Internet Platform and mobile handsets to COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications S.A.’s “i-mode(r)” service, which will be provided commercially, with an initial free period, from 7 June 2004. NEC has achieved rapid implementation in cooperation with COSMOTE, so that the i-mode service can be launched well in advance of the “Athens 2004” Olympic Games, of which COSMOTE is a Grand National Sponsor.
QUALCOMM Incorporated pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the finalists for its annual BREW Developer Awards, which recognizes outstanding applications developed in the past year for the Company’s BREW solution. QUALCOMM will reveal the award-winning applications during the BREW 2004 Developers Conference, June 7-9, held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. will shift its global strategy in the mobile phone business from capital investment to technological tie-ups, Kyodo news reported late last night.According to the story, NTT president Norio Wada, in what amounted to a veiled attack on former chief Keiji Tachikawa, said DoCoMo planned a smarter overseas investment strategy than his predecessor. “It is possible we will have partners through technological tie-ups or business affiliations,” Wada said in an interview with Kyodo News.
New technology and business plans are making 3G networks profitable for NTT DoCoMo and other Japanese carriers, as well as for content providers. Powerful terminals, workable billing and rich content all contribute to fast growth. Japanese mobile users can receive media content — news and information in the form of text, images and video — delivered direct to their phones, and they access media while mobile in large numbers. In Part 1 of a story published today on the JMR site, WWJ editor Daniel Scuka delves into the technologies making media content delivery via mobile a reality, including Web, Java, TV, and FM radio. Log on for a review of the highlights. “Japan’s Success in Mobile Media Has Wanna-Be Messages for West”.
NEC Corporation announced today the launch of PASOLINK Mx, a new line-up of fixed point-to-point wireless access system in the global market boasting the World’s Largest Bandwidth Capacity. PASOLINK is chiefly designed for telecom carriers’ backhaul, business and emergency networks. It offers simple and highly reliable fixed wireless solutions.
Kyocera has unveiled the AH-K3001V handset [image] for the Japanese market. It’s the first handset available in Japan that uses the Opera browser to access the Internet. The phone is fully Opera-branded, including an Opera-branded softkey that brings users online for Web surfing. The AH-K3001V will be available to DDI Pocket AirH” subscribers by mid-May.
Reporting net income up nearly 400% year-over-year, Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm said “Our financial results reflect the strong acceptance and rapid global growth of 3G CDMA”. Early 3G CDMA entrants continue to perform well, KDDI, the first CDMA operator in Japan, announced its sixth consecutive month as the leading Japanese operator in net subscriber additions, and now has approximately 14 million subscribers on its 3G network.
