Japan's NTT DoCoMo sees Europe embracing hi-tech mobile phones
133472
Japan's top mobile operator NTT DoCoMo believes Europe will embrace hi-tech telephones and expects a major boost in subscribers on the continent of its i-mode Internet service.
754202
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.
603514
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile-phone carrier, and Motorola Inc. (MOT), the world's No...
21206
Motorola and NTT DoCoMo plan to target Japanese business travelers with a new 3G handset next spring that will run on W-CDMA and GSM networks.
289937
European cell phone group mmO2 has agreed to adopt the i-mode mobile Internet technology pioneered by Japan&#39;s NTT DoCoMo and plans to bring
540655
On the heels of talks between DoCoMo and Apple over iPhone, Japan's biggest carrier will reportedly ink a deal with Google to provide search and e-mail on its handsets.
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).
265311
Japan'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.
385733
The world&#39;s leading wireless carriers and telecoms equipment makers, including NTT DoCoMo, have agreed to develop an advanced mobile phone standard capable of sending high-resolution video in an instant, a Japanese newspaper reported on
136194
TOKYO: Motorola and NTT DoCoMo, Japan&#39;s top mobile phone operator, said yesterday they would jointly develop third-generation (3G) handsets, giving Motorola a way into a market largely out of reach for foreign manufacturers.
110897
TOKYO - NTT DoCoMo Inc said Tuesday that it will expand its i-mode Internet-capable cell phone services into Britain and Ireland in the latter half of 2005 by concluding a licensing contract with British cell phone company mmO2 PLC.
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.
175717
Altimo wants to expand by buying phone assets in Asia and Western Europe.
415847
NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan&#39;s largest mobile-phone operator, and MMO2 Plc will introduce a cellular- phone service in the UK, Ireland and Germany based on the Japanese carrier&#39;s i-mode wireless Internet technology.
316338
NTT DoCoMo, which recently announced that three of its phones will be based on Linux, invests in US vendor MontaVista Software. By Mobile Pipeline News.
185224
TOKYO Motorola and NTT DoCoMo said on Wednesday that they would jointly develop third-generation cellphones, giving the American company an important foothold in the Japanese market.
50336
(InfoWorld) - Vodafone and High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) have signed an agreement to jointly develop and market 3G (third generation) smart phones in Japan, the companies said Thursday. The deal makes Vodafone the second major mobile operator to work with HTC, the world's the largest maker of handsets that use MicrosoftÂ software. In July, HTCÂ inked a deal with NTT DoCoMoÂ to sell Windows Mobile-based smart phones. HTC is a key partner for Microsoft in its battle to win more market share with its mobile phone OS, and Japan is an important market for several reasons, mainly because of the early adoption of 3G services in the country.