Japanese Carriers' Packet-fee Addiction
I’ll be the first to cheer when even one of Japan’s mobile Internet troika offer substantial per-event traffic billing regardless of number of packets. Realistically, this probably won’t happen on the 2G networks (the spike in usage would swamp the systems, yada, yada, yada), so the interesting question is: which 3G network will offer re-event billing the first? And which will subsequently offer flat-rate? Don’t be surprised if it’s KDDI with their CDMA technology.
Update: How about that!
Cees van den Heijkant, CEO of KPN Mobile The Netherlands, knows wireless Internet almost better than DoCoMo does. His company studied the model, stripped it down to basics, and last April birthed a bouncing baby i-mode that now claims over 200,000 subscribers (starting with only a single, less-than-spectacular handset, no less). Not bad for a process that took a year-and-a-half, required entirely new thinking on how to manage data services, and involved a lot of effort to, as he puts it, “understand how you’re going to bring the content to the customers.” Don’t miss this program!
Dr. Kamel Maamaria, head of telecoms practice at consultancy AT Kearney, says that lots of people – especially in Europe – have tried to brush off the i-mode model as ‘a Japanese thing.’ But he says that no other model has shown that operators can make money from content. “Vodafone launching V live! is one of the best things that ever happened to DoCoMo – because what Vodafone is doing validates the i-mode model,” he adds. Watch Part I of our in-depth report highlighting Gurus and Deep Thinkers from this month’s 3G Mobile World Forum. 
“Camera phone penetration is increasing. With the newest handsets – particularly in DoCoMo’s case – the packet downloads have just surged. So you’ve got much higher packet usage – two to three times higher now on the camera phones,” says CSFB sr. telecoms analyst Mark Berman. Watch our 2003 kick-off program as we pick the brain of one of Tokyo’s most respected industry watchers on what to expect in ’03. DoCoMo, KDDI, J-Phone, ARPU, data trends, and multimedia: these are a few of our favorite things!