3G
3G

3G

Tokyo Analyst: 2003 Wireless Outlook

Tokyo Analyst: 2003 Wireless Outlook“Camera phone penetration is increasing. With the newest handsets – particularly in DoCoMo’s case – the packet downloads have just surged. So you’ve got much higher packet usage – two to three times higher now on the camera phones,” says CSFB sr. telecoms analyst Mark Berman. Watch our 2003 kick-off program as we pick the brain of one of Tokyo’s most respected industry watchers on what to expect in ’03. DoCoMo, KDDI, J-Phone, ARPU, data trends, and multimedia: these are a few of our favorite things!

Mobile Videoconferencing to Be 'Ubiquitous'

Keisuke-san says his 2-1/2-year-old daughter is already interested in communicating visually on both mobile phone and on the set-top video system that he has in his SOHO office. “She sometimes says to me,’Dad, let’s do videoconferencing.’ I do not think that she understands the literal meaning of the words but she is kind of getting used to stand or sit in front of a monitor that shows a person talking on the other end of a live video call. She looks [like she’s] just enjoying it.”

Wireless to Mars and 3G vs. PHS Speed Test

Wireless to Mars and 3G vs. PHS Speed Test“They have high-speed network links back to planet Earth. The architecture diagram of Mars Rover looks just like the architecture diagram of any ol’ Earth-based, end-to-end enterprise app. And they’ve got this problem that the network link is very slow… it has high latency.” Well of course. It covers a hundred million kilometers. In today’s program, we bring you a special year-end wrap-up including a couple of clips that didn’t make it into our regular programming. Join us for WWJ’s special year-end web video! Thanks to all for your comments and support, we look forward to another super year in 2003.

Mobile Software Goes Overseas

While a slowdown in new announcements can be expected during the upcoming shogatsu New Year holiday period, 2003 promises to provide even more activity now that UK-based Vodafone has launched a 3G network in Japan and is expected to seek know-how and technology from Japan for its operations elsewhere. Further, Japanese software developers are sure to continue looking outside this country’s near-saturated market for new sales opportunities.

Report from J-Phone/Vodafone's 3G Launch

Report from J-Phone/Vodafone's 3G LaunchOn December 3, J-Phone Co., Ltd. held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the launch of a new third-generation (3G) wireless network under the “Vodafone Global Standard” service name. “SMS is a form of data roaming and we also have packet roaming” said J-Phone president Darryl E. Green at last week’s 3G launch, adding, “It’s not as rich as it could be, but we’re working on many things.” Watch this exclusive report from the Tokyo event, including one-on-one interviews with Green and CTO John Thompson and highlights of 3G technology demos.

J-Phone Has Great 3G; Too Bad About the Handsets

Overall, I’m underwhelmed. Handset quality and clunkiness versus feature mix are widely considered to be major factors in the fizzling of FOMA to date. I think J-Phone will have to market like heck to convince people these are any better than current (great-quality) 2G models, and if DoCoMo launches better 3G models (as they are expected to do very soon), J-Phone could be in trouble.