NEC eyes 3G phone market in China
524034
Japanese electronics giant NEC Corp said on Monday it is seeking to build third-generation (3G) mobile phone infrastructure in China in a bid to gain a foothold in the world&#39;s biggest mobile phone market.
619539
Nokia Corp. is getting ready to ship mobile phones based on China&#39;s homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile standard.
567686
It&#39;s easy to be wowed by Japan&#39;s mobile communications infrastructure. &quot;Next-generation&quot; 3G coverage is now so ubiquitous that carriers have already stopped launching 2G phones; an impressive array of attractive handsets offer free digital TV; phones can be used to pay for goods and train rides, thanks to embedded contactless smart cards; and on the mobile information superhighway data whizzes along at 3.6Mbps. But watch out for the off-ramps.While Japan has led the world with many of the services offered to consumers, in some ways the mobile ecosystem here is downright backward as I found out last weekend when I tried to buy a new phone. A broken handset necessitated a new model and this is where my story begins.In Japan, phones are sold by carriers and not the phone makers. Companies like Fujitsu, NEC, Sony Ericsson, and a few foreign vendors including Nokia, Samsung, and LG sell their phones in the thousands to carriers. This gives carriers the ability to pretty much dictate to the phone maker what software needs to be installed.This model is one of the reasons that mobile Internet services like I-mode took off here so quickly. There was no chicken-and-egg situation with phone makers and users waiting for each other to take the plunge. NTT DoCoMo decided I-mode would be in new phones and so it was.But this model has a downside. Phones are so tightly customized to each carrier that it&#39;s not practical to keep the same handset when switching carriers, and if you see a phone you like you can only buy it if it&#39;s offered by your carrier.Back to my story. The new phone was looking quite expensive so I decided to switch carriers and take advantage of a free phone on a competitor network. Japan launched number portability a year ago, so I could make the jump without losing my cell-phone number. I&#39;d still have the hassle of a new e-mail address, but it appeared a small price to pay.Before long I had a new phone in my hands, but my phone numbers remained locked in the old handset. The new carrier didn&#39;t have a cable to hook up to my old phone so they couldn&#39;t transfer the address book and it wasn&#39;t possible to beam it between the phones. While my old carrier was gung-ho on Bluetooth, my new carrier wasn&#39;t so enthusiastic, so the new phone had no support. Similarly, while the new phone offered infrared, the old phone didn&#39;t. Heavy customization strikes again.Back home I fired up my PC and managed to get my address book from the old phone into the computer. Getting it to the new phone via a memory card seemed like an easy task ... but no! The VCard file wasn&#39;t being properly read by the new phone. Carriers, it was explained to me when I called the help line, often used custom fields in their VCards so there were sometimes problems. So much for a common standard.I won&#39;t bore you with the technicalities of how I eventually got my address book into my new phone, but suffice to say this story has a happy ending. I&#39;m now back in cruise control, enjoying all the attractions the mobile superhighway has to offer.The number portability system that enabled me to keep my phone number is coincidentally one-year-old this week. About 3 percent of users in Japan -- roughly 3.7 million people -- have made use of the system during its first year -- far less than the industry predicted, or feared.One thing that&#39;s said to be stopping users from switching is the inability to keep their e-mail addresses. While carriers fussed over the details of keeping numbers, they forgot, or perhaps ignored, the need to carry e-mail addresses between carriers. In other countries this wouldn&#39;t be a big deal because most messaging is done via SMS, which relies on phone numbers, but in Japan the advanced stage of the market has again caused hassle for consumers.
432166
Chunghwa Telecom Co -- Taiwan's leading telecom operator -- said it expects its third generation (3G) mobile subscribers to rise to 2.2 million by the end of 2007 from 850,000 last year.
293575
(InfoWorld) - Some of the world's biggest cellular operators have gotten together to promote their vision of what next-generation mobile technology should look like. Sprint Nextel Corp., Vodafone Group PLC, China Mobile Communications Corp., Orange PLC, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Royal KPN NV and T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG announced Thursday they have formed the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) initiative. NGMN, a nonprofit group based in London, won't push a particular type of network but rather a set of guidelines that future technologies should follow, said Steve Falk, vice president of global standards at Sprint. "We think that we can speak with a more organized and concerted voice that we have in the past," Falk said. Vendors and standards organizations had stronger voices in the development of 2G (second-generation) and 3G systems. Carriers will represent the interests of their customers, the end users, he said. The group, which is already consulting with equipment vendors but will only include carriers as members, may be pitting itself against Qualcomm Inc., which developed much of the current 3G (third-generation) technology and has been criticized in some quarters for its royalty and licensing practices. The NGMN is looking toward the technologies to follow 3G systems such as HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) and EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized). Carriers are still deploying and upgrading those networks, which are based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) respectively, but even faster technologies are coming down the road. Sprint, for one, has called WiMax its 4G technology and plans to roll it out across the U.S. within the next few years. In choosing WiMax, the carrier used some of the guidelines NGMN was formulating, Falk said. Among NGMN's recommended features are the following: - high data throughput with low latency - low operation and maintenance costs - support for authentication, security and differentiated quality of service Carriers also will favor technologies covered by FRAND (fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory) intellectual property rules, Falk said. "One of the principles of NGMN is an open and transparent IPR (intellectual property rights) regime," he said. The NGMN would like to see a single technology track and believes greater harmony will lower costs and speed up product development for vendors, too. "In some cases, 2G and 3G vendors have had to do very costly and time-consuming development on three to five different kinds of technology," Falk said. Being able to focus on one or two tracks, in turn, will help bring products and services to mobile subscribers faster and more economically, he said.
50732
Japan's NTT DoCoMo will join hands with Cingular Wireless of the United States, aiming to unify technical specifications for third-generation (3G) cellphones and services.
152807
SINGAPORE - SingTel will begin selling high-speech third generation mobile phones, or 3G phones, from Thursday, making it the first company in the region to sell the new technology.
213692
InfoWorld - Nokia is getting ready to ship mobile phones based on China&#39;s homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile standard.
39900
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).
503535
MOBILE phone operator Maxis Communications Bhd expects to roll out its third generation (3G) technology in the local market from the first quarter of next year.
630764
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's biggest mobile carrier, is to spearhead the rollout of an advanced version of its 3G (third-generation) services called Super 3G, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
630430
By Virgil Larson, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.  May 25--DENVER -- Level 3 Communications Inc. is eyeing China as a market for the network and services it now sells across the United States and much of Europe.
594871
China Mobile Communications, currently the largest operator of mobile communication services in China, will establish a 3G (third-generation) experimental network in Beijing at the beginning of next year, according to the China-based Xinhua Online.
584947
Chinese network equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies is beginning to make inroads into the U.S. mobile telecommunications market about three years after establishing a subsidiary here.
740811
(InfoWorld) - Chinese telecommunication equipment maker ZTE has signed a deal with Samsung Electronics to jointly develop 3G (third-generation) mobile base stations for use in subscriber homes or offices. ZTE and Samsung will cooperate on the research and development of WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) femtocells, small base stations that connect to the operator's network over a DSL (digital subscriber line) connection, the Chinese equipment maker said. Putting these base stations inside a home or office can improve service quality for cellular subscribers. In addition to WCDMA access, the base stations will be equipped with Wi-Fi, allowing users to wirelessly access the Internet. They will also offer the ability to provide fixed-line VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, the company said. When users leave their home, their WCDMA phone will be handed off from the in-home base station to the operator's cellular network. ZTE did not offer a timeframe for when base stations incorporating technology jointly developed with Samsung would be available. Last week, Telefonaktiebolaget LM EricssonÂ introduced a base stationÂ that offers the same general capabilities as described by ZTE. Ericsson's access point is slated to hit the market during the middle of this year.
73949
(InfoWorld) - As the mobile phone industry scrambles to put cellphones in the hands of billions of unconnected people in emerging markets, less-expensive, higher-speed WiMax is likely to be the technology of choice to connect them to the Internet. "We will see some operators in emerging markets upgrade their cellular networks to support lower-speed data services such as e-mail, but there is a very strong case for deploying WiMax to provide high-speed Internet services in these regions," David Taylor, director of strategic operations high-growth markets in the mobile devices division of Motorola, said Wednesday in an interview at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. WiMax networks require fewer base stations than 3G (third-generation) higher-speed mobile phone networks, according to Taylor. And not only are WiMax base stations cheaper, they also consume less energy because their systems don't need cooling. That's a huge benefit as powering networks cost efficiently can be a big challenge in emerging markets. Add to that the speed of WiMax -- up to 10GbpsÂ -- and the result is "a very strong case for WiMax in emerging markets," Taylor said. "Particularly small and medium-size businesses in rural areas can be served very cost-efficiently with this technology." Pakistan has already announced plans to deploy WiMax. So what happens to the many cellular networks already built or being built in these markets? They won't disappear, according to Taylor. On the contrary, operators will continue to use them to deliver basic voice and text services. Some may also decide to upgrade them to GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) technologies to support low-speed data services. "This is not a costly upgrade," he said, unlike an upgrade to 3G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution), the cellular rival to wireless WiMax. Motorola has learned "valuable lessons" about designing products for users in emerging markets, Taylor said. "Simplicity is crucial," he said. "Handsets should have few features -- they should be touch and go." Reliability is another issue. Phones must be robust and not easily breakable. "Many people spend two months of income or more to purchase a phone," he said. "They've made a huge investment in a piece of technology they expect to work -- always." Low power consumption and long battery life are also crucial as many people in emerging markets still live without electricity and need to pay to have their batteries recharged.
197442
(InfoWorld) - Chinese telecommunication equipment maker ZTEÂ has developed a prototype handset that supports both GSM and China's homegrown 3G (third generation) standard. The slim clamshell-design U80 handset, which was on display at the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) Telecom World 2006 conference and exhibition in Hong Kong. offers support for both TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) as well as GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks. ChinaÂ has yet to issue 3G licensesÂ or announce when 3G services will be available. The country is widely expected to issue at least one or more licenses for TD-SCDMA, a 3G technology largely developed in China. A dual-mode handset that supports TD-SCDMA and GSM would allow users toÂ switch between future 3G services and GSM networks, currently the most widely deployed cellular technology in China. The U80's main display is a 262,000-color TFT (thin film transistor) LCD (liquid crystal display) screen with a resolution of 176 pixels by 220 pixels. A secondary display on the outside of the clamshell is a CSTN (color super-twist nematic) LCD screen with a resolution of 96 pixels by 64 pixels. The phone's other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera that can swivel 180 degrees, allowing users to use the camera for video calls or to take photos. The software included support for English and the simplified Chinese characters used in China, as well as a media player capable of playing MP3 and AAC+ audio files, as well as MPEG4 and H.263 video files. Telecom World runs through Friday.