CDMA
CDMA

CDMA

Vodafone KK: All Quiet on the 3G Front

Prepare for some grim reading. There wasn’t a lot of good news on Vodafone’s Eastern Front, for the short term at least, arising out of Vodafone K.K.’s November 18-announced first-half financials. It is eerily quiet in the Little V machine gun nests out here on the 3G frontier. Vodafone K.K. faces gently sliding ARPU, wilting subscriber uptake and a long haul launch for a fully-fledged rollout of cutting-edge 3G keitai. “Japan Telecom Holdings (JTH) stock finished down 15 percent for the day after posting first half earnings,” notes CSFB senior telecoms analyst Mark Berman. “The market is essentially saying that it has completely lost confidence in both the competitiveness of Vodafone in Japan, and believes further that the current … management is more concerned with appeasing parent Vodafone than it is with rewarding minority shareholders,” he writes this week. On the other hand, the basis for a big comeback could be on the cards for next summer. We’ll give an overview of these points below, but before we start blazing away. ** We’d like to sincerely apologize to Vodafone K.K. for our mucking up an item in the Happy Packet discount series in last week’s newsletter. For the record, packet rate slashes DO apply to 3G, and we said they didn’t ** Honto-ni, gomen nasai, Vodafone-Sama! WWJ subscribers log-on and in..

3G Production for TD-SCDMA Scheduled

The developer of China’s first 3G mobile phone set using Chinese standards signed a letter of intent on Sunday with a telecom company on commercialization of the product. Under the deal, the Chongqing Institute of Posts and Telecommunications, the developer, and China Putian Corp, the country’s largest telecom equipment supplier, will jointly set up a production base in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, for manufacturing TD-SCDMA 3G mobile phones.

Enfour Announces Launch of GlobalNavi 3G Mobile Data Service

Today Enfour Group announced launch date for GlobalNavi – their new roaming content on Vodafone Global Standard (VGS) – Vodafone K.K.’s 3GPP-based, high-speed W-CDMA network. This new mobile service, called GlobalNavi, aggregates a full suite of data and voice services catering for the needs of international travellers in their native language. This service takes full advantage of the first truely global data roaming service provided by VGS.

Mobile Applications For Enterprise Users Missing in Japan

In September, a group of IT professionals visited Japan to roll up their sleeves and find out who are pushing what enterprise applications here. With FeliCa debuting in trial form a few weeks from now, we were interested in hearing their views about Japan’s ready-built business apps. infrastructure. You may be surprised by their findings. Independent consultant (and WWJ subscriber) Donal O’Shea was part of the group that included representatives of a major French airline, an Australian steel company and a UK-based package delivery company, together with Douglas Neal and Piet Opperman of CSC Research Services and Sebastien Bacholet of Cigref. They met with Qualcomm, HP, IBM, NTT DoCoMo, Alcatel/Fujitsu, Telecom France, Nissan, and Hitachi, and toured the Yokohama Reasearch Park. Wow, Big Big Itinerary… In a nutshell, concludes O’Shea, “carriers have never understood the enterprise…”

Tokyo Motor Show: Telematics To Go, Anyone?

Tokyo Motor Show: Telematics To Go, Anyone?Japan is the nation of early adopters for mobile, but there’s one consumer app. that went flat and is now undergoing heart massage by some of the country’s biggest and best companies: Telematics is the name, and subscribers is the game. 2004 is supposed to be the year when Japanese Telematics Ver.2 gets cranked into first gear and out of the highway rest area (it was also supposed to happen this year.. shuuush!) Japanese Telematics comes in three main flavors, and in this program you’ll get a taste of two of them. We managed to go for a ride on Toyota’s G-Book and learn more about their new sense of community offering. And we interviewed Nissan –which has great future plans you’ll get to virtually-virtually test drive– about City Browse. Full Program Run-time 21:58

Vodafone Announces New V801SA by Sanyo 3G Handset

Vodafone K.K. Tokyo, announced today that on December 1 it will commence nationwide sales of the V801SA by Sanyo, a new 3G handset compatible with Vodafone Global Standard (VGS) for use not only in Japan but abroad as well. With the launch of the V801SA, Vodafone K.K. will simultaneously offer new Vodafone live! mobile internet services exclusively for VGS. The V801SA Handset Offers Sha-mail and Movie Sha-mail Access Overseas 3G Vodafone live! to launch with rich and high-speed W-CDMA contents.

China Set to Fund Domestic 3G Standard

The government is expected to invest 1.4 billion yuan (US$168.7 million) to aid the development of a homegrown standard for 3G mobile communications, according to industry insiders. Industry analysts say the new financing, along with a recent government decision to delay issuing 3G licenses to 2005, shows Beijing is determined to support a domestic standard rather than relying on foreign technology.

DoCoMo and COSMOTE Commence Partnership for i-mode in Greece

NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan’s leading mobile communications provider, and COSMOTE Mobile Telecommunications S.A., the leading mobile operator in Greece, announce today that they have formed an exclusive strategic partnership agreement under which DoCoMo is licensing COSMOTE to launch i-modeｮ, the world’s most popular mobile service, in Greece. The two leading mobile operators have signed today an agreement, under which COSMOTE will offer its i-mode service over its 2.5G GPRS network and 3G UMTS network, with DoCoMo providing its know-how, technology and patents.

DoCoMo and KDDI Pushing the Envelope and Raking in Profits

Just as we thought things are gearing up this month, Japan’s number one and two carriers have really pulled some goodies out of their bag. We’ve already talked about KDDI and flat fees, but this week’s subject is profits for the carriers and a grab bag of gains for subscribers. If ever there was a reason not to keep your eyes fixed on Japan’s wireless communications, we’d like to know. DoCoMo trumped itself recently announcing profits, Felicia Mobile commerce with Sony, and now (finally) some concrete plans to expand i-mode. We have the innards of DoCoMo’s recent press conference up for you in this week’s WWJ video program here.

China's First 3G Mobile Phone

China’s efforts to develop a high-speed telecoms technology that could compete with Western standards in the world’s biggest mobile market have taken a step forward with the first compatible phone. A Chinese university said yesterday it had developed a telephone for the home-grown standard known as TD-SCDMA, a milestone that could help decide when third-generation mobile licences are introduced in the country.