CDMA
CDMA

CDMA

Cell-Phone Soap Opera a Cool New Genre

Love comes to the really, really small screen in a mobile, only-in-Japan, soap opera made exclusively for KDDI 3G cellys. The live-action soap opera, Yokohama 80s, follows the predictable lives, loves, and losses of young, beach-loving Japanese boys and girls back when Madonna was still Like a Virgin. Eighties’ big hair, big shoulders, and big hits have been downsized to tiny, two-and-a-half-minute broadcast bites. The story is adapted from Shogakan Shukan’s weekly Big Comic Spirits-series “Tokyo Eighties” (published as a serial manga) but features all-new original characters and storylines by the same author. Can the mobile laundry soap commercials be far behind?

DoCoMo Adds SingTel Videophone

NTT DoCoMo announced that Japanese customers of its 3G FOMA-based WORLD CALL service will be able to exchange videophone calls with users of compatible 3G/W-CDMA services offered by Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) beginning 2 November 2004. SingTel is currently offering 3G services on a trial basis, so DoCoMo customers initially will be able to place videophone calls to SingTel users participating in the trial.

Siemens to Bring the First HSDPA Solution to Market

Siemens Communications will be the first vendor to bring an end-to-end solution for “High Speed Downlink Packet Access” (HSDPA) to market, complete with PC card. This UMTS extension will enable operators to significantly boost data rates in UMTS networks and provide their subscribers with average download speeds of up to 2 to 3 megabits per second. That roughly corresponds to what the fastest DSL connections are currently capable of offering. In January 2005, Siemens will be conducting the first live demonstrations with a HSDPA network.

Cell Phones Morph into Music Players

Watch out, iPod! The hottest mobile news on planet Earth this week is KDDI’s announcement of a full-song mobile download service for 3G. If the service launches as planned, the profits could be enormous for carriers and labels alike. But all is not well in Japan’s mobile music land and those pesky FTC raids are just part of the worry.Part 1 of a Series.

Japan Cellphone Sales Off 8.5%

IT researcher and consulting firm Gartner Japan has announced sales in Japan of cellular phones between January and June. Sales reached 22,133,100 units, down 8.5% over the same period last year. The company attributes the decline in sales to the fact that demand for camera phones was not as brisk as a year ago. Gartner also reports that W-CDMA phones accounted for almost 15% of total cellphone sales.

Casio's New 3G W21CA Handset

WWJ Editors, 14 October 2004
Casio has announced a Japan mobile industry first handset equipped with 2.6inch QVGA liquid display ‘Wide View Style’ screen and Opera browser. The W21CA [.jpg image] comes complete with a 2mega-pixel camera capable of making images at UXGA (1600×1200) this swivel style design also has BREW, GPS, and Flash functions built-in. It can even shoot mpeg movies for up to 15 minutes at 320×240 to the 24MB onboard memory.