The Telecom Carriers Assoc. stats just released for February sales activity indicate that the majority of mobile phone customers in Japan have now migrated to 3G. DoCoMo added over 828,000 new 3G contracts for a total of 22 million, KDDI/au added 309,000 for 21 million and Vodafone managed to sign-up 195,000 new 3G customers for a total of just under 3 million.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Credit Saison Co., Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and UC Card Co., Ltd. today announced a joint agreement to promote DoCoMo’s iD credit card brand. Under the agreement, Credit Saison will give their credit card owners the option of making payments via iD. Mizuho Bank will also give the same option to the holders of Mizuho Mileage Club Card, an ATM card with credit card functions issued by Credit Saison. UC Card will work to expand acceptance of the iD brand at its participating shops nationwide.
NTT DoCoMo have just announced they have developed a 3G FOMA series called SIMPURE — a combination of ‘simple’ and ‘pure’ — comprising basic and compact handsets [.jpg] for people who do not require highly sophisticated functions. The series has two models, SIMPURE L, supplied by LG Electronics, and SIMPURE N, supplied by NEC. DoCoMo is positioning this series for use as second handsets for international travel as both models work on W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS networks.
Vodafone has revealed it is in talks about selling its struggling Japanese phone business to internet and telecoms provider Softbank. Its Japanese subsidiary has been losing customers in the face of fierce competition from domestic operators such as NTT DoCoMo and KDDI. “Vodafone confirms it is in discussions regarding a potential sale of a controlling interest in Vodafone Japan to Softbank,” the company said in a statement. “These discussions may or may not lead to a transaction.”
See our Vodafone’s Japan Exit: Thinking the Unthinkable dated Feb. 2005 — Eds.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it achieved 2.5Gbps packet transmission in the downlink while moving at 20km/h. The fourth-generation (4G) radio access field experiment took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on December 14, 2005. DoCoMo achieved a maximum 1Gbps speed in a similar field experiment on May 9, 2005. This time, by increasing the number of MIMO*1 transmission antennas from four to six and by using 64-QAM*2, data volume per transmission was increased from four bits to six bits. As a result, DoCoMo achieved a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps, which is faster than the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)’s proposed standard.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries have just announced they will postpone the launch of the 3G FOMA NM850iG handset, which had been scheduled for 24 February 2006. DoCoMo is confirming the handset’s quality and will launch the handset as soon as all confirmations are completed. (Ouch! — Eds.)
