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FOMA

New DoCoMo 902i Series 3G FOMA Handsets Coming Soon

New DoCoMo 902i Series 3G FOMA Handsets Coming Soon?Digging deep into Japan’s blog space over ice coffee this morning turned up interesting rumors (and some detailed specs) concerning DoCoMo’s next generation of 3G FOMA handsets. The dog days of summer is about the right time for an announcement from Big D’s Sanno Park Tower HQ on models slated for release sometime in Q3 and we’re willing to bet that these rumors may just have some substance behind them. While WWJ subscribers can log in for the full juice, we will say up front that more than one blog has mentioned 10 new models coming from all the usual suspects (NEC, Panasonic, Fujitsu, Sharp, etc.) plus a couple foreign-made entries for what should be called the 902i-series.

JR East, NTT DoCoMo, and NTT DATA to Jointly Promote Suica e-Money Service

East Japan Railway Company (JR East), NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (DoCoMo) and NTT DATA Corporation (NTT DATA) announced today that they have agreed to jointly promote JR East’s Suica® e-money service. Through this joint venture, JR East aims to expand the number of retail shops and companies accepting Suica e-money, which will make it more convenient and attract more users. For DoCoMo, the expansion of the Suica e-money service will encourage use of its “Osaifu-Keitai” mobile phones equipped with contactless IC cards.

New DoCoMo 3G Micro Fuel Cell

DoCoMo announced that the company together with Fujitsu Labs has developed a new and improved prototype methanol fuel cell for 3G FOMA handsets. The new prototype enables eight hours of continuous talk time, three times the capacity of the existing prototype, while weighing the same, 190g. The device is expected to greatly extend usage time once it goes into commercial production. Further work on the prototype is expected to be completed by the end of March 2006.

DoCoMo Expands 3G Global Roaming

DoCoMo announced today that they will expand FOMA 3G international roaming and videophone services in Europe and Asia. Starting from 12 July, WORLD WING and WORLD WALKER users in Seoul, Korea will be able to use the FOMA N900iG handset for voice communications and accessing i-mode. Germany will join the lineup of countries where DoCoMo users can enjoy videophone roaming services, followed by Italy on 26 July.

DoCoMo in Global Terminal Deal

i-mode global allianceDoCoMo’s i-mode goes for the globe! Japan’s leading cellco and its eight alliance partners in Europe, Taiwan and Australia agreed on their first joint procurement tie-up for i-mode handsets. Korea’s LG Electronics will fill what promises to be a very large order for their camera-equipped, clamshell, L342i model with embedded antenna and Java capability. LG has made strong inroads into the European mobile marketplace. A report by IDC on Europe’s mobile phone market showed LG with.. (WWJ subscribers log in to read full story; keywords include terminal partners, i-mode licensees, subscriber count.)

ACCESS' NetFront Powers Full Internet Browsing on N901iS 3G Handset

ACCESS announced that its NetFront full Internet mobile browser has been selected by NTT DoCoMo for deployment in its 3G FOMA N901iS handset. The N901iS is part of DoCoMo’s 901iS Mobile Wallet series—the most advanced handset series ever developed by DoCoMo. In combination with ACCESS’ NetFront browser, the N901iS handset’s advanced functionality expands to deliver support for both i-mode as well as full Internet browsing. ACCESS’ NetFront browser provides N901iS end-users with a rich, full Internet mobile browsing experience that includes the ability to scale down standard Web pages to fit the width of the phone screen, thus eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling while significantly facilitating the mobile browsing experience.