Friday, August 22, 2008
Last 2G phone shipped 8 months ago in Japan
Second generation (2G) phones silently bowed out of Japan's market 8 months ago: the last 2G phones in Japan were shipped in December 2007. KDDI/AU switched off their 2G radio network in March this year, and both DoCoMo and SoftBank announced that they will switch off their slow and expensive 2G networks in the very near future (about 2009). Almost all other countries in the world either depend on legacy 2G networks only, or keep legacy 2G going while building out third generation in parallel. (Today's 3G HSDPA phones transmit data up to 250 times faster than 2G phones did on a good day).
The last 2nd generation (2G) phones shipped in Japan in December 2007. Almost all other countries keep legacy 2G networks running - Japan just switches them off. More in our JCOMM report.
The last 2nd generation (2G) phones shipped in Japan in December 2007. Almost all other countries keep legacy 2G networks running - Japan just switches them off. More in our JCOMM report.
Labels: 2g, 3g, docomo, hsdpa, hspda, Japan, KDDI, mobile phone, softbank
Monday, March 19, 2007
eMobile - mobile disruption in Japan
On March 31, 2007 eMobile will start high-speed (3.6 Mbps, HSDPA) mobile data services in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, bringing disruption into the mobile data market in Japan.
While Willcom offers a flat data rate of YEN 9000 (US$ 77) per month for unlimited data transmission at 128kbps, eMobile will offer 30 times higher speed at about 1/2 the price:
3.6Mbps for PDAs, laptops and PCs for YEN 4980 (US$ 43, EURO 32) per month flat rate without any data limit (and n.b. no "fair use limit" as many European operators impose in the fine-print). .... and yes- you can probably also do wireless VOIP or Skype if you set this up yourself.
The established mobile operators (DoCoMo, KDDI/AU and SoftBank) do not offer any flat data rate to connecting PCs and laptops.
eMobile offers the EM-ONE terminal:
- data download at 3.6 Mbps (wCDMA-HSDPA)
- wLAN (IEEE 802.11b/g)
- Windows mobile 5.0
- digital mobile TV
- 4.1inch VGA (800 x 480) LCD display by SHARP
- camera (with QR-Code reader etc)
(By the way- did you ever wonder why new entrants love flat rates? it's because telecom billing systems are so expensive and complex. Flat rates are one of many competitive weapons new entrants have over incumbents...)
Slashdot It!
While Willcom offers a flat data rate of YEN 9000 (US$ 77) per month for unlimited data transmission at 128kbps, eMobile will offer 30 times higher speed at about 1/2 the price:
3.6Mbps for PDAs, laptops and PCs for YEN 4980 (US$ 43, EURO 32) per month flat rate without any data limit (and n.b. no "fair use limit" as many European operators impose in the fine-print). .... and yes- you can probably also do wireless VOIP or Skype if you set this up yourself.
The established mobile operators (DoCoMo, KDDI/AU and SoftBank) do not offer any flat data rate to connecting PCs and laptops.
eMobile offers the EM-ONE terminal:
- data download at 3.6 Mbps (wCDMA-HSDPA)
- wLAN (IEEE 802.11b/g)
- Windows mobile 5.0
- digital mobile TV
- 4.1inch VGA (800 x 480) LCD display by SHARP
- camera (with QR-Code reader etc)
(By the way- did you ever wonder why new entrants love flat rates? it's because telecom billing systems are so expensive and complex. Flat rates are one of many competitive weapons new entrants have over incumbents...)
Slashdot It! Labels: 3g, eaccess, emobile, hsdpa, hspda, voip, wimax
