DoCoMo
DoCoMo

DoCoMo

Mobile Number Portability Price War

Softbank announced it will offer new price plans – lower than DoCoMo and KDDI by at least 200 yen – on the eve of Japan’s Mobile Number Portability launch. Softbank introduced 18 new subscription plans including three packages which allow subscribers to call and message for free at certain times of the day. A recent survey by the Nikkei reported that up to 25 percent of SoftBank customers may switch carriers under the new MNP rule while 19 percent of DoCoMo’s and only 8 percent of KDDI’s users said they may change carriers after number portability.

DoCoMo Closing in on Guam

Guam’s telecoms biz is abuzz about developments in the a pending $72 mn megadeal. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is gearing up to give the final OK for the agreement, as the federal agency has received a petition to adopt conditions in which Japan’s NTT DoCoMo would acquire and merge the assets of local wireless providers Guamcell Communications and HafaTel. If accepted, the petition would solidify the authorizations and licenses of what is expected to be the dominant local telecommunications provider.

KDDI Posts Strong 2Q Results

KDDI has announced their second-quarter profits rose 24 percent with net income climbimg to 60 billion yen ($507 million) for the six months ended Sept. 30. The companies AU brand noted a slight increase in data ARPU (average revenue per user) to 2,000 yen for the second quarter from 1,890 yen a year earlier while voice fell to 4,700 yen from 5,300 yen the period a year ago. Total sales increased 6.9 percent to 806 billion yen.

Japan's Still the World's High-Tech Testbed

This past week, WWJ’s own Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, our hard-working director of digital media (and pretty much everything else in our humble shop), appeared on US Web radio program "Into Tomorrow," hosted by Dave Graveline. Dave and his crew pop over to Tokyo each year for the annual CEATEC consumer tech show, and he makes it his business to hook up with a slate of guests who can provide insidery gen on what’s happening in Japan…

DoCoMo and HP Announce Sensor Platform

NTT DoCoMo and Hewlett-Packard just announced they have been conducting joint research with the goals of developing a new application platform to interconnect cellular telephone systems and sensor networks and the development of a prototype of new middleware platform. Designed to work with networks found in homes and businesses that utilize sensors relying on a variety of transmission methods the Sensor Network Middleware Platform enables interactive communication between those networks and mobile phones.

NTT DoCoMo Announces New 3G, HSDPA Phones

NTT DoCoMo Announces New 3G, HSDPA PhonesNTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries today announced 14 new 3G FOMA handsets, including the 903i-series, the ‘SIMPURE’ series and N902iL. All 11 new 903i handsets provide a wide range of entertainment functions, said the company. They are equipped for DoCoMo’s Chaku-Uta Full full-track music-downloading service. Five models can play tracks transferred from PCs that were used to download music from sites such as Napster Japan, which offers unlimited access to approximately 1.5 million downloadable tracks for a flat rate. HSDPA-capable models work with the Music Channel service, which enables up to two music programs to be downloaded automatically during the night, and the expanded i-motion video clip for downloading up to 10MB files. All models are compatible with Mega i-appli rich applications, and some are also equipped for “One-segment” digital terrestrial broadcasting.

The new 903i-series offer a number of improved conveniences for daily life. They have IC cards with triple the storage capacity of conventional models, and they come preinstalled with software required to use DoCoMo’s DCMX mobile credit card on DoCoMo’s iD platform. Six 903i models are equipped for the Keitai-Osagashi Service, a GPS service that enables a misplaced handset to be located with a PC.