Vodafone
Vodafone

Vodafone

Softbank Returns New License

Softbank Corp. told the government that the Internet conglomerate will return a license it acquired in November 2005 when the ministry also awarded new carrier licenses to eAccess Ltd. and IP Mobile Inc., Softbank said it has adopted the more cost-effective measure of using the infrastructure set up by Vodafone K.K., Vodafone Plc.’s Japan arm, rather than starting business from scratch. Softbank President Masayoshi Son met Heizo Takenaka, the communications minister, to inform him that he was returning the business license.

SoftBank Assumes Control of Vodafone K.K.

Vodafone K.K. just announced that today’s Extraordinary General Meeting and Board of Directors Meeting saw the company officially appoint a new slate of directors and executive officers, who assume their posts effective today. Masayoshi Son is now Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of, the soon to be former, Vodafone K.K. (Subscribers login for full details on the new management line-up).

Sharp Tops Japan Mobile

Sharp Corp. overtook NEC Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. as Japan’s biggest mobile phone maker by shipments for the first time, MM Research Institute said in a report dated yesterday. Shipments by Sharp gained 20 percent to 7.6 million units in the year ended March 31, accounting for 16.3 percent of the total 46.3 million shipments, the researcher said.

DoCoMo Shares on the Rebound

NTT DoCoMo stock has been trading at all-time lows, however, DoCoMo is increasingly being viewed as a value play and it may be breaking out of its trading funk. Its ordinary shares shot up 3.51% today to close at 177,000 yen on strong volume not seen since a breakout on January 5th this year when it traded at 193,000 yen.

Desirable Mobile Services for the Future

Info-Plant has issued a very interesting report on mobile-phone usage in Japan focusing on ‘Desirable Mobile Functions and Services’. Data was collected via a nationwide survey of mobile phone users from the networks of NTT DoCoMo, KDDI/au, and Vodafone and valid responses were received from 7,905 users. Questions asked what mobile phone functions or services were used regularly and respondents were asked to list the services or functions they would like to see added to mobile phones in the future (log in for details).

Vodafone Releases Two New Handsets

Vodafone K.K. has announced that on 22 April 2006 it will commence sales of the Vodafone 804N, a new 3G handset by NEC, in the Kanto-Koshin region. The 804N model [ .jpg image ] will be rolled out in other regions when preparations are in place. The handset touts approximately 450MB of handset memory capable of saving approximately 100 songs. Also available starting this weekend, the V604T [ .jpg image ], manufactured by Toshiba, is a new PDC (2G) handset that features a terrestrial analogue TV tuner and a separate, dedicated FM radio tuner.