Users of Vodafone’s third-generation cell phones were unable to connect to the Internet or send or receive e-mail for over seven hours due to a network fault, company officials said Thursday, just days after a similar glitch caused problems for users.
Vodafone KK is hoping to appeal to a wider range of companies with changes to its Vodafone Mobile Office price plan. The company plans to reduce monthly basic charges for business customers from 1 June. Under the current scheme, customers form an on-net group of 20 lines or more under the same company account.
Roam, roam on the (wider) range. DoCoMo is extending international videophone and mobile roaming services for their 3G FOMA system. Starting 27 May, “World Wing” and “World Walker” roaming service users will be able to browse both i-mode and Web sites from China, keep the same i-mode mailing address while in the Middle Kingdom and access existing services for voice and SMS; China Mobile Communications Corp. will provide the local network. Data communications charges start at 50 yen for the first 50 packets and 0.2 yen per packet thereafter.
Vodafone K.K. announced today that it will enhance its Automatic Image Conversion function for Vodafone live! mail services from 30 June 2005 to make it possible to better receive Movie Sha-mail video messages from other Vodafone K.K. handsets and imaging files sent from non-Vodafone K.K. handsets and PCs. The Automatic Image Conversion function was first launched in September 2004, making it possible for Vodafone K.K. customers exchanging Sha-mail picture messages to have images automatically converted by the mail system to a size and number of colours optimal for the receiver?fs handset. The service does not require an application and customers are only billed for communication charges incurred when sending and receiving mails.
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.
Vodafone Japan has two new handsets ready to roll this July perfect for fashionistas and metrosexual males with finicky phone fetishes. Tightly fitting silicon costume covers, ala Trinity, have been designed to slip onto the sleek clamshell bodies of the V501T from Toshiba and Sharp’s V501SH handset for a very different sort of custom look. The V501T has twelve wild interchangeable cover designs. These are not just reflective overlays but full-on, 3-D cushy covers changing the look and feel of the phone to, well, something else.
