KDDI has posted their January subscriber data on the company’s IR website. CDMA 1X subscribers grew by 286,000; cdmaOne shrank by 122,300. Assuming a 100 percent migration rate, this indicates that the carrier picked up 163,700 new customers. It will be interesting to see how the other two compare when the official TCA numbers come out later this week.
QUALCOMM and Seiko Epson Corporation, a global leader in imaging technology and products, today announced that Epson has developed an LCD controller chip, the S1D13751, with integrated Mobile Display Digital Interface (MDDI) technology by QUALCOMM. The MDDI standard is an optimized high-speed serial interface solution that directly connects LCD panels and camera modules to the Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM™) chipset, enabling the most advanced, reliable LCD panel and camera technology available today. MDDI is supported by select QUALCOMM CDMA2000® and WCDMA (UMTS) solutions.
According to the company, NTT DoCoMo will participate in 3GSM World Congress 2005, an exhibition of the latest telecommunications technologies, services and R&D. The event will be held 14-17 February 2005 at the Palais des Festivals et des Congres in Cannes, France. The company says it will exhibit its world-leading 3G services, which are based on W-CDMA technology. Visitors can enjoy demonstrations of videophones and movies on the latest FOMA 901i-series terminals, learn about the technology supporting 3G networks, and see i-mode FeliCa mobile phones equipped with contactless FeliCa IC technology. NTT DoCoMo will also provide touch & try demonstrations of 3G services.
NTT DoCoMo and StarHub Ltd., today jointly announced a strategic partnership under which StarHub will launch i-mode™ services exclusively in Singapore by the fourth quarter of this year. With this agreement, i-mode will be available in 22 countries and regions through 14 operators. Under the DoCoMo-StarHub agreement, StarHub will offer i-mode services over both its 2.5G and 3G networks with DoCoMo providing its expertise in patents, branding, marketing, knowledge and technology.
Japan’s Big Three cellcos, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Vodafone, released their Oct-Dec 2004 quarterly financials in the past fortnight, and there’s a lot of information to be digested. If the endless listings of multi-billion-yen profits bore you, then it might be interesting to take a look at some of the new technologies, service models, and data tariffs that were announced along with the financial results.
NEC Corporation and NEC Telecommunications (China) announced that it has commenced production of 3rd Generation mobile radio base stations (Node-B) at one of the production site of NEC Telecommunications (China). The first lot of the products has been delivered in January 2005 to Europe and the plant is ready for manufacturing Node-Bs for China. The production base procures major core pre-product modules, such as channel coding cards and line cards, from NEC’s major manufacturing sites in Japan (NEC Saitama Ltd. and NEC Wireless Networks Ltd.), and other general parts such as power modules and racks from local vendors.
