CDMA
CDMA

KDDI Releases New Line of 3G Phones

KDDI announced a new line of 3G phones to be available end of February 2004. The models include the W21H by Hitachi, equipped with a mega pixel camera, the first of the kind among CDMA 1X WIN mobile phones; the Sanyo A5405SA, equipped with functions such as “pair function” and “smart mode” and the Sony Ericsson A1402S, equipped with a 2.3 inch QVGA LCD and au’s first infrared ray communication function.

DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA UPDATE

At yesterday’s regular press conference, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa managed to confirm most of what we wrote about last week in our viewpoint DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA? Most importantly, someone in the U.S. is still obligated to roll out W-CDMA because this was grandfathered into DoCoMo’s original contract with AT&T. Tachikawa said yesterday that the phones have already been ordered! We’ll have more details on Monday.

KDDI/ DoCoMo 3G Phone Wars Simmer

At his regular press briefing yesterday, DoCoMo president Keichi Tachikawa said that DoCoMo’s ongoing battle with KDDI to make the best 3G mobile phones is a battle that sometimes KDDI wins and one that sometimes DoCoMo wins, but that strategically, in terms of new services, it’s a war that DoCoMo will win. As of February 2004 the handset battle pits KDDI’s W21H, A5405SA and A1402S against DoCoMo’s 900i series, with the latest, the Panasonic model out about now. Behind that, there’s a speed war, with DoCoMo hastening the rollout of HSDPA initially at 3.6Mbps then 14.4 Mbps vs. CDMA1X WIN’s best-effort 2.4 Mbps. The more important issue for Tachikawa, however, is which carrier will successfully develop a new era (or as he mentioned-about 8 times- a “paradigm shift”) of services over the next two years.

Nokia and ACCESS Collaborate on Advanced Browser for 3G Multimedia Phones

ACCESS, a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet technologies, announced today that it has collaborated with Nokia to demonstrate ACCESS’ acclaimed NetFront mobile browser for WCDMA optimized releases of Nokia’s Series 60 Platform. With a broad range of plug-in support, NetFront enables downloading and playing of popular content formats such as RealMedia or MPEG4 movies, music, and SMIL packages. NetFront’s versatility makes it a perfect launch pad for multimedia and infotainment on the move.

DoCoMo: New 3G Plans for USA?

Despite the fact that NTT DoCoMo has to shed its 16-percent stake in AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (and probably a few tears given the drop in value), this does not mean AT&T Wireless gets off the hook from its obligations to launch W-CDMA 3G in four US markets by the end 2004. So what’s a badly burned DoCoMo, which has been forced to write down something like 1.5 trillion of the 1.9 trillion yen it spent on minority shareholdings in Western and Asian carriers, to do? The answer seems to be hopping into bed with Cingular to keep the 3G dream alive, or at least stop it degenerating into a nightmare.

DoCoMo 3G FOMA May Go Flat Rate

If the report is true, what we’ve been predicting for months is proving correct, with KDDI building up incredible momentum over the last quarter, DoCoMo, despite statements to the contrary has been forced to protect subscriber growth on FOMA. Here it is; the Nikkei has reported that DoCoMo is planning to introduce flat rate data charges “as early as the middle of this year.” Because it’s Saturday, and because it’s the Nikkei, we can’t be sure, so we’ll have to adopt the wire service caveat of “the paper said, without quoting sources.” According to the Nikkei, DoCoMo’s flat-rate the packet data charges on FOMA 3G services first and then move this to HSDPA next year.