Vodafone
Vodafone

MTC Snaps Up Tokyo Forum Opportunity to Showcase 3G

MTC, the world’s premier mobile phone operator, is taking steps to boost its global 3G presence and is participating in the forthcoming 3G Mobile World Forum to be held in Japan this week. The telecommunications giant confirmed that it had signed up to become one of the platinum corporate sponsors of the prestigious event, which is being run for the fourth time from January 12 to 14 2005 in Tokyo. The Forum is expected to attract the world’s leading 3G operators, with the commercial application of the technology at a crucial stage and the industry now faced with a choice of options as to how it moves forward.

New Year Gadget Shopping: Cell Phones that Look Like iPods

One of the best things about having a few days off over the holiday season in Tokyo is having time to wander casually through Akihabara and check out the latest gadgets. 2005 is shaping up as a showdown year for music-enabled portable devices and I couldn’t help but notice how DoCoMo’s new 3G handset, the SH901ic by Sharp, really does seem to have at least a slight style similarity to the iPod. As the network speed increases — and with flat-rate packet costs and improved handset technology — critical mass adoption by mainstream users buying even more data seems to be at hand. As competition increases, how will carriers, handset makers and content providers adapt their offerings over the coming year?

While it remains to be seen exactly what kind of applications and services will hit the streets, it has become increasingly clear that a race is on. Having both KDDI and Vodafone launch fixed-line access to content for mobile devices in Q42004 shows, at least in the mid-term, they are ramping up the business model to deliver larger-size files to end users. A little crystal-ball gazing for the coming year — and some very cool Akiba gadget photos — after the jump.

Korean Wireless Broadband Confusion

Following last week’s announcement that a number of companies in the space were working on so-called Super 3G, both Samsung and LG spoke up against the group, suggesting it was really an attempt by NTT DoCoMo to do an end run around efforts to settle on a 4G standard. Ed’s Note: Interesting that Samsung’s comment ignored Vodafone which was also one of the 26 companies on this group announcement.

Super 3G Global Standard

According to the Nikkei, the world’s 26 major mobile phone operators and handset makers have agreed to work on a global standard for a super-fast mobile transmission technology. The group includes NTT DoCoMo and NEC of Japan, Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC, US cell-phone carrier Cingular Wireless, Alcatel of France and Siemens AG of Germany. Super 3G can boost mobile transmission speeds to between 30 and 100 megabits per second to match existing land-line fiber-optic telecom technology.

Vodafone Releases 902SH 3G Phone

Vodafone K.K. just announced that the company will commence sales of their high-end V902SH 3G handset (by Sharp) on 29 December in the Kanto-Koshin region, with Japan nationwide rollout following thereafter. The V902SH [.jpg image] features a Mobile ASV display, which is based on ASV (Advanced Super View) liquid crystal display technology found in Sharp’s AQUOS line of LCD TVs. The company says customers can “enjoy remarkably clear viewing in bright locations outside and in dark spots indoors.” In addition, the handset display offers a 160-degree viewing angle from all angles without colour distortion in conformance with JEITA standards; it also has a 5:1 contrast ratio.

Vodafone's Shift to 3G Phones

Vodafone K.K. President Shiro Tsuda said Wednesday the Japanese unit of British mobile phone service company Vodafone Group PLC will encourage its customers to shift to 3G handsets for faster data communications. “Vodafone will offer its last 2G handset next year and no more 2G later,” Tsuda said in an interview with Kyodo News.