Samsung Electronics have announced the release of their SCH-V670 handset [ .jpg image ], which apparently provides automatic roaming services [Via: Anycall?] between Korea and Japan. The specs indicate it runs on an EV-DO chipset, supports .PDF file viewing, has an integrated MP3 player and touts a “New Concept” Flash-based UI. It even has a GPS support function to help those Korean businessmen WWJ sometimes sees wondering around downtown Tokyo!
Vodafone K.K. announced today that it has acquired a preliminary license from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which was applied for on 27 April 2005, to operate W-CDMA experimental radio stations on the 1.7GHz frequency band, marking the first time for an existing mobile operator in Japan to receive such a license. Vodafone K.K. currently offers 3G services on the 2GHz frequency band. However, due to an increasing number of 3G customer contracts and the proliferation of packet communication flat-rate services, a rapid increase in 3G traffic is expected, which would make current 2GHz frequency band capacity insufficient.
Willcom Inc. has decided to bid for use of the 2GHz band that the Communications Ministry plans to offer to one 3G cellular phone service company this year, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Monday. If approval is granted, Willcom plans to launch next-generation PHS service that will realize a data speed of 20-30 megabits per second — about 100 times as fast as current PHS services and equal to that of ASDL.
DoCoMo’s hybrid 3G-PDA M1000 handset is off the showroom floor and finally on the street. WWJ was at the launch event and we’ve put together a quick video program showing just what sort of hoops this smartphone jumps through. Previewed at an April 15 press conference, the tri-band business-use handset from Motorola juggles W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS for global roaming, opens Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs as well as PDF files, and allows multiple email functions including POP and IMAP email. Internet access channels through the Opera 7.5 browser. DoCoMo took the (daring) step of dropping i-mode capability for the M1000 in favor of global compatibility. More PDA than phone, all navigation is through the bright, 2.9-inch touch screen.
WWJ Portable Reportable MP3 audio report
Of the 10 mn Japanese using some form of the FeliCa contactless IC payment system as of 1 April, 700,000 are already mobile-enabled, according to Tokyo’s bitWallet, the joint-venture set up to commercialize Sony’s FeliCa technology. In today’s WWJ Portable Reportable, we speak with Norihiko Fujita, a bitWallet manager working on extending the FeliCa-based “Edy” payment service into mobile platforms. After NTT DoCoMo launched their own-branded “i-mode FeliCa” service last summer, Vodafone and KDDI are playing catch-up in 2005, and they’d better hurry: with 20,000 merchants already accepting FeliCa-based payments, there’s money to be made from mainstream users. (“Edy” stands, somewhat hopefully, for “Euro, Dollar, Yen”).
NTT DoCoMo will start selling Nokia Oyj phones as early as October, getting its second foreign handset maker after Motorola Inc. for its high-speed network. Nokia, the world’s largest mobile-phone maker, will produce a model for DoCoMo’s 3G network, which allows users to download music and video clips and access the Internet at a faster rate than older phones, Chief Financial Officer Yoshiaki Ugaki said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday.
