Vodafone
Vodafone

Vodafone

Sharp Launches WX-T91 in Taiwan

Sharp and Fareastone have launched a version of Vodafone’s 903SH [.jpg] 3G phone in Taiwan. Designed to run on GSM/GPRS and W-CDMA 3G networks, the WX-T91 [.jpg] features the same 3.2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, USB and infrared features, as well as a MiniSD card slot (supporting up to 1GB), an MP3/AAC music player and a bar-code scanner. It also supports Video/TV-Out enabling users to view their pictures and play games on their TV screens. The unit comes in three colors: black, red and white at an estimated retail price of almost $800 — approx. triple the street price in Japan.

Video Call Charges Reduced by 50%

Vodafone K.K. just announced that it will revise its Priority Support discount service for people with disabilities by reducing video call charges by 50% effective from the February 2006. Priority Support is a discount service available to customers who have been issued a Certificate for Persons with Physical Disabilities, a Certificate for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, or a Certificate for Persons with Mental Disabilities, to make Vodafone K.K.’s services more accessible by reducing basic*2, call*3 and mail*4 sending/receiving charges by 50%. With this revision, video call charges will also be applicable so Priority Support customers can make video calls for half the normal communication charge.

3G Network Limitations Define Mobile TV

3G Network Limitations Define Mobile TVIt’s rare for WWJ editors, a jaded bunch, to get too excited about new service announcements, but on 6 December, we jumped on this fresh Vodafone press release that seemed to herald the emergence of the rather cool, made-in-Japan ‘Vodafone Live! BB’ (BB= broadband) music- and video-download service into the Group’s European markets. Vodafone live! BB uses the ‘i-Pod model’ to get large media files onto mobile phones, avoiding network traffic fees and should be, we have always thought, a no-brainer for export to Vodafone Opcos outside Japan. Don’t mobilers everywhere want to save on packet/data fees and get audio and DVD-quality video onto their handsets?

Vodafone Should Exit Japan/US

Sir John Bond, who becomes Vodafone’s chairman in July, should review its global strategy. The mobile operator is in investors’ bad books, with its shares trading at a steep discount to the sum of its parts. But a change of strategy — if cleverly executed — could replace the discount with a premium. The solution is to sell Vodafone’s Japanese and US businesses. Not that it will be easy to exit them well.

Korean 3G Phone Finally Hits Japan Market

Korean 3G Phone Finally Hits Japan MarketKDDI/au has announced the roll-out of their A1405PT, made by Pantech & Curitel, will begin today in the Hokkaido region and throughout all areas of Japan over the weekend. The phone was jointly developed with KDDI and marks the first entry of a Korean maker’s handset into the Japanese market. Touted, at 98 grams, as the ‘lightest 3G handset’ available in the market, it comes with a limited set of features (only a VGA camera, for example), but it does have an organic EL “Stream Screen” sub-display and has a built-in crime prevention buzzer function, a feature which was also just introduced by DoCoMo (for good reason).

WWJ has been tracking rumours and hints on the entry of Korean terminals for some time now but this is hard fact on the ground. We have seen Sanyo and Casio pushing into the U.S. market along with Sharp and NEC making moves in Europe. It’s clearly becoming a two-way street with the recent launch of Motorola’s M-1000 with DoCoMo, who have also indicated that LG and Nokia models are in the pipeline.

Vodafone Selects A-GPS Solution

Openwave Systems announced that NEC Corp. is integrating Openwave Location Manager into NEC’s Network Assisted Location Information Solutions. Vodafone K.K. in Japan is the first customer to select the combined solution. Openwave and NEC’s location solution is in compliance with the pre-standard Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) standard currently under consideration by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The solution integrates Openwave Location Manager’s Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) with NEC’s SUPL positioning server to provide a high-accuracy, Assisted GPS (A-GPS) offering that enables location-based services for both the consumer and enterprise markets. The combined solution also incorporates an access management feature to protect subscriber privacy at both the mobile handset and application levels.