Wireless News
Wireless News

Ecrio Announces $3M Investment for 3G Mobile Software

Ecrio Inc., a global provider of advanced software for mobile phones, today announced that Diamond Capital Company Ltd., the venture capital arm of Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., has invested $3M in its new strategic investment round. They join current investors Nexit Ventures, Cypress Ventures/CIR Ventures and CDB Webtech. “We are very impressed by Ecrio’s technology and the traction the company has generated in the mobile phone software market for advanced 3G services,” said Mr. Tetsuya Mori, Director of Diamond Capital.

Opera Browser for KDDI's Casio W31CA

Opera Software has announced that the Opera browser will be shipped on the new Casio W31CA from KDDI, Japan’s largest 3G operator. The Casio W31CA [ .jpg image ] is a multi-functional 3G phone with a large 2.6 inch QVGA display, a 3.2 megapixel camera and full Internet and E-mail capabilities. Opera is currently offered on four KDDI handsets, with more to come. The Casio W31CA is available in Japan as of July 29, 2005

Successful WLAN to 3G Trials

Ericsson and the Softbank Group said they have succeeded in a trial experiment for seamless handover of circuit-switched voice data using an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) on a 3G mobile network and wireless local area network (WLAN). This live demonstration was executed on a mobile WCDMA 3G network operated in the 1.7-GHz radio band.

JR East, NTT DoCoMo, and NTT DATA to Jointly Promote Suica e-Money Service

East Japan Railway Company (JR East), NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (DoCoMo) and NTT DATA Corporation (NTT DATA) announced today that they have agreed to jointly promote JR East’s Suica® e-money service. Through this joint venture, JR East aims to expand the number of retail shops and companies accepting Suica e-money, which will make it more convenient and attract more users. For DoCoMo, the expansion of the Suica e-money service will encourage use of its “Osaifu-Keitai” mobile phones equipped with contactless IC cards.

Fujitsu Launches USX Field Connectivity Software Solution

Fujitsu Limited today launched its new USX(TM) field connectivity software package, which is designed to help accelerate customer innovation in the field and bring ubiquitous connectivity to the front lines of businesses. The new software package will be commercially available in Japan beginning today. The USX package is comprised of server software and client software. It leverages sophisticated presence management(*1) functions developed by Fujitsu, capable of delivering ubiquitous networking phone features that automatically route calls over the optimal network, such as wireless LAN (via internet or intranet) or internal or external phone lines, depending on the location of the mobile handset user. It also supports an optional Push-to-talk over Cellular/Wireless (PoC/W)(*2) function, enabling a user to transmit voice or data messages to multiple recipients simultaneously.

DoCoMo's Experience with Flash Lite

The recently released Yankee Group report, “Under the Yankee Group Microscope: NTT DoCoMo’s Experience with Flash Lite,” emphasizes how Flash has become a de facto standard in Japan. According to the report, “Sophisticated information services using Flash Lite have characterized the first wave of innovation. More than 60% of the 4,400 official i-mode sites are based on Flash Lite.” WWJ subscribers log in for access to the full report in PDF.