Willcom Inc. has decided to bid for use of the 2GHz band that the Communications Ministry plans to offer to one 3G cellular phone service company this year, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Monday. If approval is granted, Willcom plans to launch next-generation PHS service that will realize a data speed of 20-30 megabits per second — about 100 times as fast as current PHS services and equal to that of ASDL.
DoCoMo’s hybrid 3G-PDA M1000 handset is off the showroom floor and finally on the street. WWJ was at the launch event and we’ve put together a quick video program showing just what sort of hoops this smartphone jumps through. Previewed at an April 15 press conference, the tri-band business-use handset from Motorola juggles W-CDMA, GSM and GPRS for global roaming, opens Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint programs as well as PDF files, and allows multiple email functions including POP and IMAP email. Internet access channels through the Opera 7.5 browser. DoCoMo took the (daring) step of dropping i-mode capability for the M1000 in favor of global compatibility. More PDA than phone, all navigation is through the bright, 2.9-inch touch screen.
NTT Comm, part of telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone is muscling in on free IP services with an IP telephone and mobile phone hybrid package for corporate and retail customers. Subscription-based “Click-to-Connect,” or C2C, enables mobile handsets from any provider to connect to NTT’s IP network by dialing a 050 prefix. Users receive assigned phone numbers attached to the prefix and NTT manages the whole system on their i-mode and Internet network.
Internet telephony, that cheap and cheerful, occasionally fuzzy alternative to conventional phone calls, has been plagued by some of the same financing problems of Internet portals — how to turn a steady profit from a free or at least inexpensive service. NTT Comm’s plan surgically removes that pesky ‘R’ from free and creates a fee-based plan that works through business models already in place. Conservative Japanese companies unwilling to commit to unfamiliar IP protocols are comforted by that rock-solid NTT logo anchoring Click-to-Connect.
Company subscriptions to the IP service allow employees to use their own mobile phones for business-related calls — plus C2C also works on conventional phones, PHS and IP models. That frees companies from providing business-use phones to workers. Each company manages their corporate subscription via a dedicated Website. Corporate charges start at 1,050 yen per phone number for between 1-50 phones. For 500 phones or more, that charge drops to 787.5 yen. Over a fixed telephone line or IP telephone, a three-minute call will cost 8.4 yen; a one-minute call on a cell phone, about 18 yen or around 54 yen for three minutes. Savings could be as much as 30 percent compared to standard cellular rates which can charge as much as 90 yen for a short three-minute call. Retail rates have not yet been released.
Atheros Communications, Inc., a leading developer of advanced wireless solutions, today announced the company’s first cellular solution, the Atheros AR1900. In a single chip, the AR1900 implements a complete cellular transceiver, baseband, application processor, audio paths, power management, and keypad, display and USB interfaces. Through this high level of integration coupled with the addition of new industry leading features, the AR1900 enables industry-leading performance at a price that is designed to fuel further market growth. The AR1900 is the first product to leverage a platform of innovative technologies developed by Atheros over the last year, including audio, voice, low-power battery operation and novel RF architectures. The AR1900 is the world’s first single-chip solution for PHS (Personal Handyphone System), which is widely deployed in China, Japan, Taiwan and other countries.
Willcom Inc., Japan’s largest personal handy-phone system (PHS) company, said Tuesday it will introduce a flat rate for voice communication starting 1 May, becoming the first domestic wireless carrier to provide such service. It said the service will allow users to call fellow Willcom PHS users for unlimited minutes for 2,900 yen per month. Willcom, formerly DDI Pocket Inc., was bought out from KDDI Corp. by the U.S. investment firm Carlyle Group.
DoCoMo, Inc. announced the launch of the N700i and P700i, the last two handsets in the new 3G FOMA 700i series, through DoCoMo sales channels nationwide on March 11. The N700i comes in three stylish body colors, which can be combined with any of ten snap-on Style Plus custom jackets for a total of 33 color combinations. Both the handset body and custom jackets have antibacterial surfaces. The P700i, the lightest FOMA handset available, features an expansive 2.2″ QVGA LCD screen and high-performance 1.25-megapixel camera. The body is stylishly texturized and color choices are thoughtfully matched to preinstalled icon-based menus and standby screens.
WWJ’s director of digital media Lawrence Cosh-Ishii was on the platform at JR Ebisu station on Tokyo’s Yamanote circle line earlier today and spotted a new ad for Vodafone’s V603T (from Toshiba). The Toshiba model and its partner, the V603SH (Sharp), released in February, both feature much-improved analog TV and FM radio functionality and the Sharp model has a built in 3D motion sensor. The ad campaign and the new cellys highlight Vodafone’s continued development of cutting-edge 2G models.
Vodafone K.K. has announced a new function will be introduced starting 30 March that blocks so-called “spoof mails”, mails sent via a PC with addresses posing as mobile handset mail addresses. With the new anti-spam measure, Vodafone K.K. aims to make its Vodafone live! mobile Internet service more dependable for customers. The spoof mail blocking function makes it possible to refuse mails sent via a PC that pose as mail addresses of Vodafone K.K., other mobile operator, or PHSNote 1 handsets. By accessing the Custom Mail Set-up page from either Vodafone live! or the Vodafone K.K. website (www.vodafone.jp), customers can select from the “accept (default setting)” or “refuse” settings to filter spoof mails.
DoCoMo announced today that they will stop accepting new applications for PHS (Personal Handyphone System) mobile phone services as of April 30, 2005. As a result of the decision, DoCoMo will post an approximately 61 billion-yen impairment loss on a consolidated basis and an approximately 21 billion-yen special loss on a non-consolidated basis. Accordingly, DoCoMo has amended its consolidated and non-consolidated financial results forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005 (April 1, 2004 – March 31, 2005), which were announced on October 29, 2004.
NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile operator, plans to exit its money-losing personal handyphone system (PHS) business in two to three years and focus on its core mobile-phone service, the Nihon Keizai reported on Thursday. However, in an unusual move, DoCoMo’s International PR made the following comment about that report. The business daily said DoCoMo would stop accepting new customers for PHS as early as April.
