Softbank Testing New 3G Standard
Softbank Corp and eAccess Ltd plan to step up their testing of next-generation cell-phone systems by this fall to collect more data. The companies are working toward launching TDD (time division duplex) cell-phone services, which are suitable for high-speed data communications. Accumulating sufficient test data is deemed key to securing a slot when the Ministry of Telecommunications allocates frequencies for TDD services as early as 2005.
Softbank has been gathering rudimentary data using three base stations in Tokyo. But the firm aims to install 12 base stations on the roofs and inside buildings in Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, to start testing its TDD cell phone systems under more realistic situations. Full story Here.