PHS
PHS

Panasonic to Consolidate 3G Mobile Phone Production in Japan

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand name, today announced plans to reorganize and consolidate its mobile phone and automotive electronics production in Japan. Under the proposed plan, mobile phone manufacturing carried out at the Hanamaki plant in Iwate Prefecture will be shifted to Shizuoka Prefecture and automotive electronics manufacturing to Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture. The plan is a part of Matsushita’s new 3-year business plan, the “Leap Ahead 21” Plan, aiming at further enhancing the company’s strategy to achieve an optimum system for global production.

Mobile TV Solution Coming?

On top of launching full-scale digital-satellite-to-mobile-terminal broadcasting services on July 1, Mobile Broadcasting Corp. (MBCO) and its main technology backer Toshiba Corp. are making a strong, and they believe attractive, push to generate digital broadcasting revenue streams for Japan’s wireless carriers in April 2006 when DoCoMo, KDDI, and perhaps Vodafone K.K. will unleash mobiles with digital TV tuners on them. Talking to Shigekazu Hori, vice president and general manger of Toshiba Corp.’s Network Services & Contents Control Center last week, the planets could finally be aligning for a tailor-made revenue model that will finally convince Japan’s carriers to equip mobile phones with television. And, of course, as mentioned by DoCoMo’s Keiji Tachikawa last week, the fact that MPEG-4 standards have been settled and H.264 is coming doesn’t hurt either.

KDDI Announces 2GHz Data Communications DO CARD

KDDI is pleased to announce the launch of the DO CARD, a CDMA2000 1X EV-DO service compliant card device for wireless data communications at a 2GHz frequency band. The card will be available from March 31, 2004. The new card will supercede the DO-BOX, and come with an expanded service area, including Nagoya and Osaka, and a revised service fee structure enabling users to take greater advantage of the service.

NEC Develops Super Shinkansen WLAN

NEC Corp. has just done something for wireless communications speeds, but possibly not in the way you were expecting. Local media has reported that NEC has just developed a WLAN/ 3G/ PHS technology capable of automatically roaming to find connections for passengers on board Japan’s shinkansen bullet trains.

Little Smart: PHS Mobility in China

With some 270 million mobile subscribers, China is now the world’s largest mobile market. Faced with long waits and high fees for land-line installation, many Chinese consumers naturally opted for cellular service instead: mobile subscriber numbers surged to pass fixed-line users last year. Personal Handyphone System (PHS) that had been tried, without much success, in Japan was retooled for the Chinese market by an obscure US-based company called UTStarcom (Nasdaq: UTSI) and rechristened “Personal Access System” (PAS).

3G Phone Becomes Guard Dragon Robot

3G Phone Becomes Guard Dragon RobotIt’s a terrifyingly simple idea. “We thought, what if you could stick legs on a keitai?” says TMSUK’s Tokyo Research Center Director Shin Furukawa. They did, and the result ain’t a cutesy Aibo or a nearly singing and faintly swinging Sony entertainment ‘bot, but boy is it practical. Here appears to be the world’s first fully functional, walking, talking home security robot Banryu or “Guard Dragon,” using a DoCoMo FOMA for its eyes and ears.It’s on sale now in Japan for JPY 1.98 million, or about $18,000. We think you’ll agree, this story really does have legs! Full Program Run-time 10:52