3G
3G

KDDI Ready to Roll-Out Free Mobile Blog (MoBlog) Service

KDDI Ready to Roll-Out Free Mobile Blog (MoBlog) Service

Word to the Wireless — Japan’s KDDI will launch a free mobile weblog system, dubbed Duoblog, for subscribers to its 3G WIN EZ Web service on 19 May. In a first from Japan cellcos, users can access and update these mobile blogs directly from their handset or PC through the KDDI Duogate portal. Duoblog sites will be fully customizable with backgrounds (skins), emoticons, images, and applications. Maybe your humble scribes here at WWJ should sign-up and join in the fun..?!? Overseas mobile sites like WinkSite and Hip-Top Nation (to name a few) already provide tools to create free moblogs (mobile blogs) or mobile editions of web logs that can be accessed worldwide from Web enabled cell phones, PDAs and PCs.

At press time, NTT DoCoMo spokesperson Tomoko Tsuda stated that the company has “no immediate plans” to launch a mobile blogging site. Vodafone Japan, too, is taking a wait-and-see attitude, saying they would “monitor market developments in this regard.”

NEC to Supply Platform and i-mode Mobile Handset for MTS Russia

NEC announced today that it has received orders of Mobile Internet Platform and mobile handsets for Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)’s i-mode(TM) service. MTS Russia’s largest mobile phone operator in Russia and CIS which is currently holding over 40 million subscribers and over 35% market share. i-mode operation in Russia is scheduled to start in September 2005, and further operation is scheduled in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Belarus in the future. Expansion of high-level functionality for the mobile Internet services in Russia is moving forward, and advanced and rich services are becoming a reality in near future. “Russia is one of the important markets for NEC.” said Noboru Wakita, Senior General Manager of NEC’s Mobile Solutions Operations Unit.

W3C Launches Mobile Web Initiative (MWI)

Today, at the WWW2005 Conference, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced the launch of the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) – an endeavor to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. “Mobile access to the Web has been a second class experience for far too long,” explained Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. “MWI recognizes the mobile device as a first class participant, and will produce materials to help developers make the mobile Web experience worthwhile. “

DoCoMo Sells Stake in Hutchison 3G

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it will complete the sale of its 20% stake in Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited (“H3G UK”) to Hutchison Whampoa Limited (“HWL”) on June 23, 2005. DoCoMo will record a gain on sale of affiliate shares of approximately 62 billion yen on a consolidated basis in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006 including foreign currency translation adjustment and as a result, will amend its consolidated financial forecasts, which were announced on May 10, 2005.

DoCoMo Delays HSDPA Rollout

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile carrier, has delayed an upgrade to its 3G (third-generation) network, the company said on Tuesday. The company will test its HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) network this year but will not roll out a commercial service based on the technology before April, DoCoMo president Masao Nakamura said at the company’s financial news conference in Tokyo.

France Telecom & ACCESS Develop Rich Media Solutions

ACCESS announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France Telecom for the joint development of a complete wireless Internet solution based on ACCESS’ products and services. This R&D partnership will enable both companies to collaboratively design and deploy innovative, rich media mobile Internet technologies for France Telecom mobile customers. The R&D department of France Télécom and ACCESS are committed to leveraging resources and sharing expertise to develop products based on the NetFront browser framework. The technologies that will be supported within the browser framework include SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), streaming video, SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), and other rich media and animation technologies.