Fresh off the wires from JCN; KDDI, Intel, JR, Kyocera, Daiwa, and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi have agreed to a new form joint venture, named Wireless Broadband Planning K.K. (WBPK), in order to bid on the 2.5GHz frequency band for Mobile Broadband Wireless Access System. Subsequent to obtaining a license, it will develop and operate a wireless network based on mobile WiMAX technology.
ACCA Networks and DoCoMo have announced their basic agreement to partner in a joint venture, ACCA Wireless Co., Ltd., for the provision of broadband wireless services based on mobile WiMAX technology. The arrangement has been made necessary by the ministry’s decision not to grant 2.5GHz spectrum rights directly to existing operators of 3G mobile services, such as DoCoMo, in order to encourage new market entrants. The companies will prepare to apply for the 2.5GHz broadband wireless access license and develop business after the license acquisition.
Japan Radio Co. (JRC) announced the new WIPAS-26 series, a broadband wireless point-to-multipoint communication system operating at 26 GHz providing high-speed IP access at up to 80 Mbps, is ready for worldwide distribution. The system was co-developed with NTT in order to enable a wireless broadband solution designed to deliver connection speeds competative to an optical cable network.
The genesis of today’s Viewpoint was back in March, when we spotted this op-ed referring to Japan mobile that had stated: “What’s different about the Japanese mobile market is that innovation is moving toward business models and marketing tactics instead of technical features and functions.” That op-ed piece in turn cited a new research report on eMarketer, “Japan: Marketing to a Mobile Society,” which insisted: “What stands out in the current Japanese experience is the fact that the center of gravity for getting through to Japanese mobile users has shifted in favor of business models and marketing tactics as opposed to new technical features and mobile phone functions.”
We took exception to both these as serious mis-analyses of the cornerstone role that technological innovation and network infrastructure competition have played – and continue to play – in powering Japan’s mobile success story. After contact with the eMarketer editors, we agreed to write separate opinion pieces, which we would both republish side-by-side in our newsletters, as an excellent way to hash out the topic and let you – our collective readers – decide.
Sadly, the marketing guys at eMarketer quashed the idea, as the subject and the detailed discussion would be “too technical a topic for our [eMarketer’s] newsletter.” But we know that WWJ readers are more than smart enough to figure out for themselves what’s really driving the mobile Internet in Japan! So we wished the eMarketer editors best of luck in the future, again gave thanks that WWJ doesn’t have any meddling marketing guys, and herewith present to you our Viewpoint.
(Subscribers login to access the full article by WWJ editor Daniel Scuka)
Image: Holographic projection demo at NTT DoCoMo R&D Labs, November 2006 ©Mobikyo
Hitachi and Alvarion have agreed to develop Broadband Mobile Wireless Access System using Mobile WiMAX technology jointly in Japan and overseas market. The goal of this agreement is to develop system solutions, combining base station technology of Alvarion with the mobile gateway technology, construction and maintenance technology of Hitachi. Alvarion also announced activity in this space recently with NTT West in Okinawa.
After last week’s O2 and Telstra i-mode cancellation news came out, it took hardly any time at all for the obfuscation and mis-analyses to hit the Web.
The news, in case you missed it, confirmed that Australia’s Telstra would, and the UK’s O2 most likely would, end their i-mode services; Telstra will terminate i-mode support at the end of this year, while O2 will stop selling new handsets this month and phase the service out over the next two years.
O2 UK was reported to have 260,000 active users, a dozen i-mode-compatible handsets and some 150 sites; O2 Ireland has not stated their subscriber numbers, but the Times said total O2 subscribers were 546,000, implying that Ireland had 286,000 i-moders. Telstra reportedly has fewer than 60,000 subscribers. WWJ members login for the full skinny.
