KDDI to tie with JR East on fibre-optic broadband
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KDDI Corp. , Japan's second-biggest phone company, said on Monday it plans to offer fibre-optic broadband services via cables owned by East Japan Railway Co.  to challenge dominant operator Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. .
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(InfoWorld) - The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has qualified 12 bidders for the government's Next Generation National Broadband Project. The announcement comes follows IDA's December 2006 call for interested companies and consortiums to demonstrate their capabilities for approval to bid on the project. In all, around 30 companies planning to bid either as individual entities or part of a consortium were qualified for the project. To qualify, companies had to show they have the financial resources and the experience necessary to build the network. Singapore has been moving towards the construction of the next-generation broadband network since February last year, when the country's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, announced plans to build a high-speed network. The network, which will offer speeds ranging from 100M bps (bits per second) to more than 1G bps and will connect all homes, schools and businesses in Singapore to the network. The next-generation network is expected to be ready by 2012. While Singapore is among Asia's wealthiest and most developed nations, the country's adoption of broadband and wireless networking technologies lags behind that of Asia's most connected countries, such as South Korea. The next-generation broadband project, and the rollout of a public Wi-Fi network, have been proposed by the government as ways to help close this gap. The next step of the next-generation broadband project involves discussions between the government and the pre-qualified bidders on the exact specifications and requirements of the project, which will be set forth in a formal tender document, expected to be released later this year. Companies that were not pre-qualified for the project are not excluded from bidding, IDA said. They can either join an approved consortium or seek approval from IDA to bid on their own. Â
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More round-the-clock centers to provide service and support for business customers are planned for Europe and Japan.
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IBM and Taiwanese chip designer MediaTek on Monday announced a three-year pact to develop wireless chip sets for a new technology to transmit large volumes of information, such as full-length high definition (HD) movies, between DVD players, HD-TVs, hand-held devices, or other gadgets around the home or office.The chip sets will use IBM Labs&#39; mmWave (millimeter wave) radio technology as a faster wireless networking alternative to Wi-Fi.The companies will promote mmWave as a way to eliminate wires between HD-TVs, set-top boxes, DVD players, and PCs.They will focus their efforts on improving the range of mmWave technology, and developing a manufacturing technique for the chip sets, said David Faircloth, vice-president of sales and distribution for global engineering solutions at IBM Asia Pacific.IBM has spent the past four years developing mmWave technology. Last year, the company demonstrated prototype chip sets the size of a U.S. dime able to wirelessly transmit uncompressed HD video.The U.S. technology giant will work with MediaTek to further develop the chip sets. IBM will put its mmWave radio chips, antenna, and package technology and patents into the venture, while MediaTek will bring its expertise in digital baseband and video processing chips to the table, the companies said in a joint statement.Once the chip sets are ready, IBM and MediaTek will both work with global electronics partners to adopt mmWave technology in their products. MediaTek has had great success in selling mobile phone and baseband chips in China, a market most companies globally are itching to take advantage of. The Taiwanese company is estimated to be the largest mobile chip set provider in the country by some analysts.Over the course of the development project, IBM and MediaTek expect to move the chip set from the existing 130-nanometer manufacturing process on silicon germanium, to a 65 nm manufacturing process on the most widely used chip manufacturing technology, CMOS (Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor).The companies face hurdles with mmWave. They will have to develop an entire ecosystem for the technology, including gaining acceptance for its use in products, possible industry standards and radio spectrum space. They will also have to pit it against potent rivals, including WiMax wireless broadband, which is also faster than Wi-Fi. WiMax is backed by a number of heavy hitters, including Intel and Motorola.Faircloth said IBM&#39;s market influence can help with building an ecosystem around the technology, and pointed out that both IBM and MediaTek can turn to global partners to help with adoption of the technology as well.IBM was not immediately able to answer questions about the performance of mmWave transmitting data wirelessly through walls or other barriers inside a home or office.Most of the work on the mmWave chip sets will take place in three locations, at IBM&#39;s TJ Watson Research Center, IBM&#39;s Tokyo Research Lab, and MediaTek&#39;s Hsinchu facility, and involve engineers from both companies.
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Korean semiconductor company Mtekvision's MV8722 chip has received DivX certification, meaning future handsets, possibly from Samsung and LG, will offer native DivX support.
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Bland on the run BT has again hinted that it could be persuaded to upgrade the UK's aged copper and aluminium wires into homes and businesses to fibre-optic lines.â¦
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NTT DoCoMo has launched its i-mode cell phone service in Britain and Ireland through a deal with British company mm02. DoCoMo believes it eventually could gain 60 million users in Europe alone as the Internet service gains acceptance.
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Japan's number two telecoms operator KDDI said it had agreed with major British carrier BT to join hands on international data communications services for corporate clients.
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The Japanese government gave licenses Friday for future high-speed wireless Internet services to KDDI Corp. and Willcom Inc., which is owned by U.S. investment fund Carlyle Group.
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German cable operator Kabel Deutschland (KDG) will massively increase its proposed spending for broadband Internet to appease cartel office concerns over its plans to buy three smaller rivals, it said on Tuesday.
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TOKYO - Japan&#39;s top cell phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. and major British mobile carrier mm02 plc reached an agreement that will allow mobile telephone users in Britain, Germany, and Ireland to surf the Internet on the handsets, DoCoMo said Tuesday.
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Tokyo, June 27 (Jiji Press)--KDDI Corp.  and Microsoft Co. said Wednesday that they have agreed on a comprehensive tie-up in new software services for corporate customers.  Under the accord, the major Japanese telecommunications career and the Japanese unit of Microsoft Corp.
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Top Japanese wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo  9437.T said on Thursday it would launch a 3G phone equipped  for use overseas and including a video conferencing function,  getting a leg-up on its closest rival, KDDI Corp. 9433.T.
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KDDI, Japan's second largest telecoms group, on Wednesday announced that its mobile arm, au, would launch the world's first service offering music downloads directly onto mobile phones.
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By Kyodo News International, Tokyo  Dec. 18--TOKYO -- KDDI Corp. resumed acceptance Monday morning of  customer applications to switch mobile phone service providers to and from its  "au" service after fixing a computer malfunction that broke out Sunday  evening, KDDI officials said.
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Acreo, a leading Swedish research and development institute operating the National Broadband Test-bed, is using Mintera's platform to integrate 40 Gbps wavelengths on a 2.5 Gbps line system over 820 km of ...
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BRITISH mobile telephone operator mmO2 has announced a deal with NTT DoCoMo, Japan&#39;s leading mobile phone operator, to launch i-mode mobile internet services in Britain, Germany and Ireland.