Wireless Internet
Wireless Internet

Wireless Internet

ITU Announces IMT-Advanced

The 22nd meeting of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector Working Party 8F (WP 8F) in Kyoto, Japan reached a significant milestone in its work when it forwarded for approval a new terrestrial radio interface for IMT-2000, “OFDMA TDD WMAN” as a specific subset of WiMAX. This new terrestrial radio interface complements the existing family of IMT-2000 radio interfaces and is in direct response to the demands of ITU Members to address the continuously growing wireless marketplace.

Toshiba and Nortel Announce WiMax JV

Nortel and Toshiba have announced an agreement for the joint development of mobile WiMax base stations for Japanese and global markets. In Japan, Nortel and Toshiba jointly participated in the government’s next-generation wireless trial using WiMax solutions, and successfully completed trial service provision in the Tohoku region of northern Japan between December 2006 to March 2007.

Boingo Roaming into Tokyo

Boingo Wireless announced a roaming agreement with livedoor Co. Ltd., to add the company’s central Tokyo Wi-Fi network to their 60,000 global hotspot collection. This agreement marks the second Asian hot zone to join the Boingo Roaming System the first was citywide WIFLY network in Taipei, which added in July 2006. According to the press release livedoor’s network covers 80% of the outdoor area located within the Yamanote Line with thousands of power-pole mounted access points.

HDTV Over Mobile WiMax

Japan Radio Company and Runcom Technologies have completed the development of WiMAX base station equipment and user terminals and jointly demonstrated the highest throughput ever achieved over Mobile WiMAX networks at the recent CTIA Conference. Based on an advanced version of the IEEE802.16e-2005 standard, operating at 2.5GHz, they achieved a record throughput of 30 megabits per second.

EMOBILE Selects InnoPath's OTA

InnoPath announced that EMOBILE has selected their Integrated Mobile Device Management Solution (iMDM) to deliver over-the-air firmware updates and configuration management. EMOBILE will be deploying InnoPath’s Firmware Manager allowing for software and firmware updates, in addition to offering its Configuration Manager enabling remote configuration of settings and new services; both applications being offered over-the-air, in real time. With this announcement, the company now has agreements tied with KDDI, Softbank, and eMobile and license agreements with several of the handset manufacturers which are sold under the DoCoMo brand.

Euro Mobile Web 5 Years Behind Japan

According to a recent research report by Forrester, when it comes to mobile services, Japan is still ahead of Europe by a whopping five years, even though operators in both regions introduced mobile Internet services at roughly the same time in the late 1990s. So it’s no wonder that Europe’s mobile operators and content and media firms wanting to enter the mobile channel look at the Japanese market to try to predict the future success — or lack thereof — of new mobile Internet services. European mobile operators should focus on the needs of mobile users on the go: their desire to communicate and access to timely and location-relevant content.

[“..focus on the needs of mobile users..” what a great concept — Eds]

NTT Rolls Out WiMax in Okinawa

Alvarion announced that NTT West Okinawa has successfully adopted the the companies BreezeACCESS VL WiMAX system at 4.9 GHz to answer their Tier 1 carrier requirements for offering wireless broadband services and fast Internet access to residences and municipalities on the Okinawa islands of Tokashiki, Zamami and Aka. This OFDM technology implementation features extended reach of more than 30 kilometers at high capacity of up to 54 Mbps to enable carriers and other service providers to offer triple play services to both business and residential subscribers.

Fujitsu Improves WiMax Efficiency

KDDI has announced early results from their joint R&D with Fujitsu Labs on energy and cost saving measures for future WiMax base stations. Nitride gallium HEMT, a stronger semiconductor material than conventional silicon, was used in a field experiment which achieved electric power output of 25W and operation frequency 2.5GHz. According to the statement they recorded electric power efficiency of the transmission amplifier at 30% improvement over previous attempts.

3GSM 2007 Award Winners

The 12th Annual GSM Association Global Mobile Awards were announced last night in Barcelona at the annual industry event which showcases the best of the mobile world. The stars of the night were the 2007 Global Mobile Awards winners, whose achievements provide an insight into the services, devices and innovation that are taking the mobile industry forward. Sony Ericsson’s K800 CyberShot handset won best 3G handset and Tokyo based I-play’s “The Fast and the Furious” took Best Made for Mobile Game. See the full category list and winners after the jump.

Contextual Ad Technology for Mobile

According to a recent article from Nikkei Electronics, Overture and NTT Data have developed a contextual advertisement suite designed for mobile. The companies started distributing their “Contents-Match Mobile” beta version to a mobile portal run by Recruit Japan last week. The story also mentions that this offering claims to be world’s first contextual ad offering developed specifically for mobile phone websites.