NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile carrier, has delayed an upgrade to its 3G (third-generation) network, the company said on Tuesday. The company will test its HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) network this year but will not roll out a commercial service based on the technology before April, DoCoMo president Masao Nakamura said at the company’s financial news conference in Tokyo.
LG Electronics announced they have successfully demonstrated 3.5G high-speed data transmission at CTIA Wireless 2005, taking place in New Orleans, March 14-16, using Lucent Technology’s 14-Mbps download-supportive W-CDMA system, as well as the company’s own HSDPA-enabled mobile phone. According to the company, the model is the same used in a successful test run at Nortel Lab on 6 March, the first of its kind in the world.
If the acronym HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) means nothing to you, read on because the technology behind this string of letters could soon significantly change the way you work and play on your mobile device. The technology, a rival to the EV-DO standard in CDMA deployed in the US and parts of Asia, promises something surprisingly missing in early 3G mobile networks — high data speeds similar to those of fixed-line ADSL services.
NEC announced that it has realized a total solution for advanced mobile networks boasting interoperation of HSDPA, advanced packet core, and IMS, representing its first step toward the realization of a next-generation network with an converged fixed/mobile environment. “NEC is ready to provide a total solution composed of a 3G advanced packet core, a HSDPA radio network, IMS, and other related applications to commercial services.” said Katsuhiro Nakagawa, Associate Senior Vice President of NEC Corporation. For more information regarding NEC’s activities at 3GSM, please visit: http://www.nec-3gsm.com
Broadband Internet provider eAccess announced at a press conference here Thursday that it will start W-CDMA experiments in late January in the 1.7-GHz spectrum by partnering with Fujitsu. eAccess President Sachio Senmoto appeared confident that Japan’s telecoms ministry will approve the company’s application to offer mobile services starting in 2006. The trials include performance testing of W-CDMA base stations and a speed evaluation of next-gen HSDPA (so-called Super 3G).
One of the best things about having a few days off over the holiday season in Tokyo is having time to wander casually through Akihabara and check out the latest gadgets. 2005 is shaping up as a showdown year for music-enabled portable devices and I couldn’t help but notice how DoCoMo’s new 3G handset, the SH901ic by Sharp, really does seem to have at least a slight style similarity to the iPod. As the network speed increases — and with flat-rate packet costs and improved handset technology — critical mass adoption by mainstream users buying even more data seems to be at hand. As competition increases, how will carriers, handset makers and content providers adapt their offerings over the coming year?
While it remains to be seen exactly what kind of applications and services will hit the streets, it has become increasingly clear that a race is on. Having both KDDI and Vodafone launch fixed-line access to content for mobile devices in Q42004 shows, at least in the mid-term, they are ramping up the business model to deliver larger-size files to end users. A little crystal-ball gazing for the coming year — and some very cool Akiba gadget photos — after the jump.
