2g
2g

KDDI WINs With Mobile Flat Rate; and Half-Price Calls to Mom

They’ve gone and done it now! KDDI’s just announced a double whammy; on November 28, the company will offer 3G’s first flat-rate packet services with all you can surf for 4,200 yen (about $37) on the souped-up, 2.4-Mbps (max) EV-DO version of CDMA 1X that KDDI has branded “WIN” (We Innovate the Next) – presumably to beat up on DoCoMo’s W-CDMA-based FOMA. Then, today, it said it was halving the cost of calls from KDDI Au mobile subscribers to KDDI ADSL/ IP home phones on the Dion Service. The knives are out! With three new service innovations, two new terminals, and a data card, the company appears to be following what Kenshi Tazaki, vice president and team manager of Gartner Research Japan, calls a “high risk strategy” (think of all those potential lost packet charges!). Will Big D respond in kind just as it was hoping to glean megabucks from FOMA users? “It’s a very aggressive shot at DoCoMo and stakes out a clear position by KDDI in the mobile market,” says Tazaki.

Viewpoint: 505iS or SOS call for 2G PDC?

Six months on from NTT DoCoMo’s largely successful counterattack – via the new 2G 505i handsets – on Vodafone’s Sha mail photo messaging service, the market-leading carrier has launched its next set of fab-five 505iS (S= second-generation) phones with working models, mockups, and three models (call girls?) – but, unfortunately, without the lovely Ai Kato (see 505i launch Viewpoint here). On top of entering the 2-megapixel camera war, the 505iS-series offer both JAN- and QR-standard bar-code reader capability (Cool! Get all your details in a flash!); a DoCoMo representative we interviewed gave strong hints that the 505iS may be DoCoMo’s final, or next-to-final, second-generation PDC upgrade. With the company seeking to emulate KDDI’s hugely successful push from 2G to 3G, migrating customers onto FOMA/W-CDMA in the latter half of next year is more vital than ever. As DoCoMo’s recent FOMA predictions arch up Chuck Yeager/stolen-Starfighter-like toward the stratosphere, or at least the top right of the graphs, what gives FOMA The Right Stuff? Is this the end of the road for second generation?

DoCoMo Introduces 505iS Series Handsets

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries today announced the upcoming launch of the new mova 505iS series of five PDC (2G) i-mode mobile phones featuring mega-pixel cameras. Menu icons downloaded from i-mode sites can be saved as preferred icons, one of various ways that the handsets can be highly personalized. The D505iS will be released on October 23, followed consecutive release of the other four models in the near future.

CEATEC Japan: Mobile Phones Evolve in the Ubiquitous Era

The prime feature of the ubiquitous society is being able to access networks anywhere, anytime, and one of the leading roles in this society is being played by cellular telephones, which let users remotely control elements of lifestyle and entertainment, and link directly with people around the world through video and data communications. At CEATEC JAPAN 2003, visitors are experiencing the developing world of the cellular telephone.

After J-Phone's Miserable Summer Vodafone KK is Born

With former J-Phone’s 3G rollout stalled and, it seems, little left in the goodies barrel to counter DoCoMo’s sleek summer-six 2G 505i rollout, and swelling 3G subscriber figures from both its rivals here in Japan, J-Phone needed to distract press attention from the company’s terrible summer. Last week, Darryl E. Green just did that. There was a strong sense of DeJaVu at WWJ when Green, eschewing fowl or game, pulled the NEC ‘tellycelly’ out of his corporate top hat at October 1’s inaugural Vodafone KK press conference. Remember Sha-mail? How fleet-footed J-Phone sidestepped DoCoMo and stole the hearts, or at least the images, of 10 million teenagers with cool keitai camera phones? It looks like the rebranded J-Phone-cum-Vodafone KK combo is going to leapfrog DoCoMo and KDDI again with Japan’s first TV-Phone this December. And, beyond that, Vodafone KK has a lot more up its wide sleeves with six new 3G phones, new business billing plans and bargain rates to fight back.

Sony Ericsson 3G Handset Delayed

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB has pushed back the launch of its first 3G mobile broadband phone in Europe and Asia by several weeks to early January as the Japanese-Swedish joint venture continues interoperability tests with wireless operators. The Z1010 will support 2G GSM and GPRS technologies, as well as the new 3G mobile broadband networks based on WCDMA technology.