FOMA
FOMA

FOMA

DoCoMo 3G FOMA Goes (partially) Flat Rate June 1

It’s official: the switch to flat rate for packet communications by NTT DoCoMo starts on June 1 at 3,900 yen per month—300 yen cheaper than KDDI. Is this the start of a new era of price wars that rapidly commoditize 3G services—reminiscent of what happened on Japan’s ADSL market a few years ago? Not if DoCoMo president Keiji Tachikawa can help it. Our first observation today was how few subscribers the flat rate will apply to—only heavy users who are used to price plans starting at 6,700 yen. The second point was DoCoMo’s opinion that perhaps only a third of heavy users might take advantage of the flat rate option this year.

Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Forge 3G Handset Alliance

Here’s one for the books: Symbian OS proponent Fujitsu and Mitsubishi (which makes decent handsets for the domestic market but is unknown outside of Japan) have announced that they are getting together to develop new FOMA handsets. The press release today appears to be dressed up in terms of Fujitsu offering its expertise to Mitsubishi with Symbian, but it also hints that the two will combine on hardware development too. Given the fact that Fujitsu is a leading proponent of Symbian, and that DoCoMo president Keiji Tachikawa hinted that Symbian will be the OS of choice, the announcement looks as if Mitsubishi has figured the lay of the land and jumped on the bandwagon.

DoCoMo to Release SH900i 3G Phone

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the SH900i, the fourth handset in the new 3G FOMA 900i series, will be released on March 20, 2004.The SH900i, like other 900i models, is equipped with a Macromedia Flash browser to enjoy rich content enhanced with highly fluid animation. It handles Flash applications of up to 100K and is equipped for richer, more sophisticated online games than ever before.

Micro-Browser and Java Module Selected for Panasonic's European i-mode Handset

ACCESS, a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access technologies, today announced that its Compact NetFront Plus micro-browser and JV-LiteTM 2 Wireless Edition, a Sun authorized JVM that complies with the J2METM standard, have been selected by Panasonic for deployment in its first European i-mode(R) handset, the P341i. Panasonic also selected ACCESS’ AVETM-SSL encryption module for this deployment. Panasonic’s decision to use Compact NetFront adds to the millions of i-mode devices that already rely on ACCESS browser technology to power their Internet functionality.

DoCoMo's 3G Flat Rate Lower than KDDI

Counterattack! Price War! Kyodo News here (notorious for its story twisting) has reported that DoCoMo is planning a flat rate service for 3G FOMA at JPY 3,900 a good 300 yen lower than KDDI’s.If it’s true, it’s awesome news for the consumer and cloudy skies for 3G internationally. We are not sure when the flat rates will start, but it must be only a matter of time before Vodafone K.K. responds.