Japan FTC Warns Softbank Mobile on Phone Rate Ads
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Tokyo, Dec. 12 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Fair Trade Commission warned Softbank Mobile Corp. on Tuesday that its advertisements for mobile phone service rates could violate the law prohibiting misleading ads.  According to the FTC, the Softbank Corp.
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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.
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Cable &amp; Wireless has agreed to sell its Japanese unit to Softbank for 72.4 million pounds. The deal, under which the Japanese Internet communications company will assume debt worth 9.5 million
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Internet and telecoms giant Softbank Corp  (9984.T) will spend about 40 billion yen ($350 million) to  start operations next year at a new data centre in southwestern  Japan, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.
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Nissan North America (7201.T) has a  warning for customers: placing your electronic key too close to  your cellphone could leave you stranded.
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Japan's top mobile operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it has found a leak of personal information linked to nearly 25,000 subscribers, with someone within the company likely to blame.
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The Nikkei average fell 0.62 percent on   Wednesday as Softbank Corp. 9984.T and Yahoo Japan Corp.   4689.T declined on a bearish broker report from Credit   Suisse, while recent gainers such as Canon Inc. 7751.T also   came under pressure.
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The Federal Trade Commission said it warned more than 200 companies about âpotentially deceptiveâ mortgage advertisements.
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LONDON - Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, Intel and IBM have started promoting a jointly developed specification for increasing the security of mobile commerce applications.
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Which?, formerly known as the Consumer Association, warns against buying 3G handsets in the UK due to a limited network.
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Japan is to start licensing cellphone "sommeliers" to guide consumers through complicated functions as mobile telephones become ever more advanced, an official said Monday.
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Japan's Softbank Corp. plans to raise  about $12 billion by securitizing earnings of the cell phone  unit it bought from Vodafone Group PLC, a source close to the  matter said on Tuesday, allowing it to secure funds at a lower  rate than with conventional loans.
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The amount consumers are charged for making mobile calls while abroad is to be investigated by EU regulators.
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Japan's Softbank Corp  is  considering offering free calls between its mobile phone and  Web-based fixed line phone users to boost its subscriber base,  sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.
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Britain's Cable and Wireless is in talks to leave Japan by selling its money-losing Japanese unit to Softbank or an investment firm of Tokyo, a report said.
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Softbank Corp (9984.T), Japan's smallest  mobile phone carrier, said on Monday it would not charge  monthly fees for three years to students signing up to the  carrier for the first time. Softbank, which is trying to grab  market share in a saturated market, outstripped bigger rivals  NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T) and KDDI Corp (9433.T) in netting new  users in December for the eighth straight month.
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Japan's Access Co. 4813.T said on   Thursday that it and Softbank Corp. 9984.T have developed   Internet browsing and email software for cell phones.