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Mobile Intelligence from CEATEC Japan

Panasonic CEATEC TourIn today’s program, we speak with Yutaka Nakamae from Panasonic’s Corporate External Relations Group who met with us during last fall’s CEATEC consumer electronics show in Tokyo. While there’s plenty of eye candy, including Panny’s 900iV (released in mid-2004), some skin-able models to please those who can’t decide on their favorite color and the very cool GSM X700 (now on sale in Europe), the real intelligence relates to finding our who’s boss in the carrier/manufacturer relationship (Hint: Who owns the customer?). Today’s proggy is not only a fun one — showing some great cellys from the October CEATEC show — but it also reconfirms the reality of the relationship between cell-phone makers and cellular operators in Japan — in this case, Panasonic and DoCoMo.

Sprint and Sanyo Introduce the MM-5600 Mobile Phone

Sprint and Sanyo announced today the Sprint PCS Vision(SM) Multimedia Phone MM-5600 by Sanyo at this year’s Photo Marketing Association Annual Convention and Trade Show. The MM-5600 by Sanyo allows customers to listen to stereo-quality music; take, share and print quality photos; and view the latest video content from nationally recognized brands in the news and entertainment industry at up to 15 frames per second with the built-in media player, all from a single device.

ACCESS NetFront Global Profile Selected for First Motorola i-Mode Handset Deploy

ACCESS announced that its NetFront i-mode Global Profile integrated software solution has been selected by Motorola for deployment in its E378i handset. This innovative handset will initially be offered by leading Spanish mobile operator Telefónica Móviles, with additional carrier deployments to follow.

WiMAX Coming to Japan

Yozan Inc, a pager and PHS service provider, recently announced that it would start a fixed-rate public wireless LAN service partly based on the WiMAX wireless communication standard, in December 2005. Ahead of the service launch, Yozan is starting field tests in the Tokyo metropolitan area in June 2005. This is the first WiMAX service plan announced in Japan. The company plans to have developed 600 core basestations and 4,000 relay stations within Tokyo’s 23 wards by December 2005.

Vodafone to Block Some Spam Mail

Vodafone K.K. said today today they would introduce a new function that blocks mails with URL links sent via the Internet containing invitations to dating and adult sites, starting late March. The company said they “aim to make [the] Vodafone live! mobile Internet service more dependable for customers.” The major source of unsolicited mail in Japan has traditionally been Internet mail servers from which spammers dump mail addressed to mobile terminals into the carriers’ wireless Internet services. It is free to send mobile-terminated mail, unlike in countries that use GSM network systems.

NEC to Demonstrate Next-generation HSDPA Network at 3GSM 2005

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