NTT DoCoMo has issued a press release stating that users of their 3G FOMA service surpassed the 2G Mova subscriber base as of 18 June. In fact, big D pulled into the lead for most 3G users per carrier in January and the over-all percentage of 3G mobile contracts in Japan became the majority in February.
The recent article via the Yomiuri about DoCoMo’s roadmap for adding GSM functionality to their handset fleet is spreading across the web like wildfire. The point missed would be that ‘the news’ was actually announced back in February! “NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Renesas Technology Corp., Fujitsu Limited, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Sharp Corporation today announced that they will jointly develop a comprehensive mobile phone platform combining a single-chip LSI for dual mode handsets supporting HSDPA /W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and core software such as operating systems.”
In a rare quadruple play, DoCoMo today issued three new handset announcements plus one new technology tie-up press release. The first handset news includes the long-expected new credit-card-enabled phones that will come bundled with the carrier’s ‘DCMX’ Java-and-IC-chip-based credit card. The new 902iS series FOMA 3G handsets mark the latest step in DoCoMo’s transformation from Just Another Mobile Phone Company to full-featured financial services provider.
The carrier also said it had agreed with Microsoft to incorporate Windows Media technologies in DoCoMo’s F902iS 3G handset, to be released this summer. The first-time collaboration means that the F902iS will support both Windows Media Audio and Windows Media Digital Rights Management 10 for Portable Devices (WMDRM-PD). The carrier will also evaluate the incorporation of Windows Media Video, Microsoft’s version of SMPTE VC-1 technologies, in future handsets. The press release states that incorporating Windows Media technologies will enable NTT DoCoMo handsets to play music downloaded to a PC from more than 100 online music services around the world, and also support music content ripped from CDs in the highly efficient Windows Media Audio format (login for details).
The high-speed 3G mobile telephony networks of today will feel like the slowest of modems in a few years, thanks in part to the work of a Melbourne-based team of researchers at NEC Australia. The company’s mobile research and development division is charged with creating technologies that will shape the next generation of mobile networks two to five years from now, as networks move from today’s speeds of about 3.6Mbps to 14Mbps and beyond. The Melbourne team represents about one third of all of NEC’s research and development capability in its field.
DoCoMo has just announced that it will join the, tentatively called, “Asia-Pacific Mobile Alliance,” with six other Asian mobile carriers. The group also includes; Far EasTone – Taiwan, Hutchison Essar – India, Hutchison Telecoms – Hong Kong, KT Freetel – Korea, PT Indosat – Indonesia and StarHub Ltd. from Singapore. The alliance boasts a combined customer base of about 100 million mobile subscribers over eight countries and regions.
NEC Corporation today announced that its High Speed Down link Packet Access (HSDPA) is to be deployed in the 3G network of 3 Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited. This contract has been awarded to NEC and its 3G partner Siemens following a successful field trial on 3 Hong Kong’s UMTS network. During the field trial, NEC’s HSDPA-based UTRAN achieved a high level of performance and functionality, including high-speed internet access, consecutive data transmission and handover in a HSDPA service environment, while allowing flexible and variable changes in transmission speed.
