Vodafone
Vodafone

It's Quiet on Tokyo's Mobile Street. Too Quiet.

Checking headlines around the Web yesterday and today, I was struck by the eerie silence on Tokyo’s mobile street. There is a ton of coverage on the Livedoor/Fuji TV take-over battle, but that’s largely a Web/media topic and not really related to mobile. Where’s all the silence coming from? And could it be related to Vodafone, Softbank or flat-rate mobile voice calling? To be sure, we’re not totally lacking mobile news; DoCoMo have posted a couple of releases in the past two weeks, including the 22 February announcement of Mobile FeliCa, see WWJ’s video coverage here and the 8 March notice on the launch of the N700i and P700i 3G FOMA handsets. Similarly, KDDI have some releases up (but only in Japanese; nothing in English since 8 February), notably on their new W31S music-player form-factor celly from Sony Ericsson.

Japan E-mail Anti-Abuse Group

Recognizing that spam e-mail is a serious problem that requires a concerted, industry-wide effort to resolve, Internet Initiative Japan Inc., KDDI Corporation, NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Panasonic Network Services, Inc., Plala Networks Inc., and Vodafone K.K. today announced that Japan’s major Internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile telecommunication carriers have jointly established the Japan E-mail Anti-Abuse Group (JEAG) to examine and implement technological countermeasures against E-mail abuse.

Vodafone Blocks Disguised Numbers

Vodafone KK said today the company would implement measures to prevent the display of disguised incoming call numbers. For calls that originate on other networks and terminate on Vodafone KK handsets, the company will identify calls suspected of stemming from disguised call number displays, and not display them to the receiver based on meeting predefined conditions. The system will start operation today and is due to be completed nationwide by 22 March.

Vodafone K.K. to offer V902T 3G handset

Vodafone K.K. today announces that, as part of its new 3G lineup, it plans to offer the Vodafone 902T handset by Toshiba in late April. The Vodafone 902T features an Active Turn Style design, which allows the display to swivel 180 degrees clockwise while the handset is open, so customers can enjoy the most suitable style when taking pictures or making video calls. Using a concept called Switch to Fun!, the Vodafone 902T’s design was conceived to enable customers to fully enjoy 3G services. The Vodafone 902T is a high-end model in the Vodafone 902/802/702 series that takes full advantage of Vodafone 3G services, with features that include an auto focus 1.92 megapixel camera, a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, twin stereo speakers and Bluetooth support.

Vodafone K.K. Feb Subs Good & Bad

Vodafone Japan have released their February subscriber numbers to the media and there is good news and bad. The loss of 2G subscribers continued unabated from January, but 3G users still grew nicely (although not as much as in the previous month). The company reports 2G users shrank by 201,200 from 14,625,000 in January to 14,423,800 as of 28 February; 3G users grew by 148,000 from 527,300 in January to 675,300. Optimists will conclude that 3G grew by 28.1 percent month-on-month far outpacing 2G’s losses (which only shrank by 1.4 percent). Pessimists will conclude that Big V is still in a whole lot of trouble.

Vodafone V603 Models Appeal to 2G Mobilers

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.