Wireless News
Wireless News

Wireless News

DoCoMo to Expand Flat-rate Data Tariffs

DoCoMo said this morning they would expand the number of calling plans with which users can bundle flat-rate data. Until now, to get flat-rate data, you also had to select one of two rather pricey FOMA voice plans, such as the Type M Plan for 6,930 yen per month; with flat-rate costing 4,095, this meant that flat-rate data cost about 11,000 yen per month! Starting 1 March, all new FOMA billing plans introduced after 1 November 2005 will be eligible for flat-rate.

Israeli i-mode in Trouble?

Launching the i-mode platform last September was supposed to be Israeli wireless operator Cellcom’s most important innovation in years, and one of its most significant ever. It was designed to distinguish Cellcom from the other wireless operators and substantially boost the company’s content revenue. Timing is everything in life, and that’s true for i-mode, too. Its fate was sealed the moment that Cellcom’s new owners replaced the company’s management. The new team, headed by CEO Amos Shapira, doesn’t believe that i-mode should be Cellcom’s main content platform. (We’ll take this article with a pinch of wasabi for now — Eds.)

3GSM World Congress 2006 Awards

The nominees have been announced for this year’s 3GSM awards with the winners to take center stage during a VIP gala dinner in Barcelona’s fabulous National Palace on 14 February 2006. According to the organizers, Mobile communications as a new entertainment and information medium has become the ‘fourth screen,’ after television, cinema and the PC, capable of delivering a vast array of media rich content to users throughout the world. This year there are new categories for mobile gaming, sports, music, film and video content.

W-CDMA 900-MHz Calls Achieved

Nortel and QUALCOMM have successfully completed HSDPA calls in the 900-MHz band, a spectrum capable of delivering wireless broadband such as mobile TV, video-on-demand, video telephony and DSL-like services to rural areas. W-CDMA in the 900-MHz band is a cost-effective way to deliver nationwide high-speed wireless coverage. It achieves a 60-percent reduction in cell sites required to serve rural areas and delivers improved quality of service in urban areas by enhancing in-building penetration by 25 percent, according to the technology’s proponents.

First Korean 3G Phone, New 3G Services for Vodafone KK

First Korean 3G Phone, New 3G Services for Vodafone KKAt a Tokyo press conference today, Vodafone Japan announced four new 3G terminals including a model provided by Korean maker Samsung. This is the first Samsung model to become available in Japan. The Vodafone V804SS (image at right) is said to be the world’s thinnest 3G handset and features a 2.3-in QVGA main LCD display, 2 cameras, stereo twin speakers, music features and the “Deru Moji” 3D Pictogram Display. The other handsets include models from Sharp (V804SH), NEC (V804N) and Toshiba (V904T).

The devices should be available in the market by mid-March.

With these latest models, Vodafone Japan also introduced three new 3G services: “Deru Moji 3D Pictogram Display,” which enables pop-up 3D animations in received messages and is compatible with the 804SS, 904T and 804N; the “Vodafone live! CAST” service, which delivers “mobile magazines” to handsets overnight and appears to be similar to KDDI’s modestly successful EZ Channel content delivery service (compatible with the 904T and 804N); and, the “Vodafone Address Book,” a service that lets customers back up their handset address book to a network server so information remains safe even when a handset is lost or broken (compatible with the 904T). WWJ subscribers log in for more details and images.

DoCoMo Announces 702i-series 3G Handsets

DoCoMo Announces 702i-series 3G HandsetsNTT DoCoMo held a press conference in downtown Tokyo this afternoon to announce the spring roll-out of five new handsets in the 702i-series for FOMA 3G phones (Sharp, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Panasonic). The series includes three ‘designer’ models — a first for DoCoMo. The carrier invited three prominent designers to work on the SH702iD, the N702iD and the F702iD. If the solid success with designer models enjoyed by competitors KDDI and Vodafone is any hint, DoCoMo should do modestly well with this new low-budget series.

Big D appears unconcerned over the potential conflict in the series’ naming. The three designer 702s are dubbed “iD” — possibly for “i-mode designer” or “independent designer.” However, the Fujitsu model is also FeliCa- and mobile Suica-compatible, and all FeliCa models to date have been dubbed “iC” (indicating ‘IC chip’). Should the Fujitsu therefore be the F702iCD? The giant carrier also seems keen on promoting its new iD credit-card (website) having created this cool ‘Vitruvian Man’ logo that we’ve noticed splashed all over Tokyo the last few weeks. That new m-commerce application is included on the Fujitsu 702iD model (but not the SH702iD or the N702iD) and we expect there could well be some confusion in the marketplace between these unrelated iD brands.

This is the first 70x-series to offer automatic Security Scan, which uses automatic downloads in the background to update phones with the latest security software from DoCoMo. The five models will be exhibited at Aoyama Spiral from January 17 to 22. More details on today’s press conference after the jump