NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today the development of micro base stations for the 3G network that are up to 1/30th the size of conventional base stations. The service area of the FOMA service has expanded steadily, which will reach 96% of the population nationwide by the end of September. The micro base stations will allow DoCoMo to expand FOMA service more economically and with greater flexibility for adaptation to operational environments.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan’s equivalent of The Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal, reported on Sunday September 7 that Japan will introduce number portability to keitai from 2005. If you’re not familiar with this system, it allows you tokeep your cell phone number when you switch between carriers and thus removes one of the significant barriers to jumping ship and signing up with a rival provider. Now call me a cynic if you like, but doesn’t it seem a little too convenient that this system is being introduced just as it is becoming difficult to sign up new subscribers?
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that on September 13, 2003 the company will begin marketing the F2402, the first data-card type terminal capable of high-speed packet transmission in both the uplink and downlink at a maximum rate of 384 kbps.
On Sept. 4th WWJ attended the Otemachi Corporate News Room for a press conference hosted by DoCoMo President and CEO Dr. Keiji Tachikawa. He covered a wide range of topics including; a new carry-over billing plan and upgraded service offerings for FOMA, brisk sales – 2.7 million units – of the recently launched 505 series handsets and the new ‘Hearty Style’ campaign package for handicapped users. He also took questions regarding their current and upcoming 3G activities in China and Taiwan, and offered his personal thoughts on the differing strategies between DoCoMo and Vodafone. If you need the full-skinny, in English, we’re the only game in town! Full Program Run-time 21:19
Conventional wisdom teaches that Japan’s mobile industry is at least 18 months in front of Europe (and years ahead of the US). That truism is no more, however, as Europe’s cellular carriers, handset makers, and wireless Internet content providers have sweated blood to catch up – and catch up they have indeed. Daniel Scuka is in Germany this fall where he’s helping WWJpartner
Last week the major wireless players in Japan converged in Tokyo’s trendy Aoyamadistrict to discuss future mobile content development strategies, and we were there see DoCoMo’s director for i-mode Takeshi Natsuno and KDDI’s contents general manager Makoto Takahashi keynote speeches. We also sat down to chat with infoPLANT’s V.P and Chief Development Officer, Susumu Taniuchi, about their new camera-phone based marketing research business. With so much potential and controversy surrounding the ketai cams we were impressed to see how a traditional business model can evolve by adopting these new tools and technologies. Full Program Run-time 14:50
