Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Japan's Third Generation Mobile Communication Handsets
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 16:31:54 +0800
I have not sent these reports for a while. The complete report is only distributed to Members. These rereports are often extremely useful and worth considering. djf ======================================================================== ASIAN TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION PROGRAM (ATIP) REPORT: ATIP99.017 : Japan's Third Generation Mobile Communication Handsets To: Distribution From: reports () atip or jp This is file name "atip99.017" Date: 2 Mar 1999 ATIP99.017 : Japan's Third Generation Mobile Communication Handsets ABSTRACT: This report summarizes the strategies of Japanese firms and provides forecasts for third generation (W-CDMA) mobile phone activities in Japan. While the initial applications for W-CDMA handsets will be voice-centric, eventually, larger displays and keyboards will be needed to effectively utilize both simple non-voice applications such as message services, banking services, Internet mail, as well as more complex applications such as people navigation services, WWW access, and sales automation systems. The demands for these larger displays and keyboards will mean that technologies for reducing weight will be very important and competition along these lines will continue for many years into the future for data-centered handsets. KEYWORDS: Telecommunications/Internet COUNTRY: Japan =====================START OF REPORT ATIP99.017=========================== Copyright (c) 1998 by the Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP) This material may not be published, modified or otherwise redistributed in whole or part, in any form, without prior approval by ATIP, which reserves all rights. Japan's Third Generation Mobile Communication Handsets Strategies and Forecasts (ATIP/Japan) CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3. FIRST GENERATION SERVICES 4. SECOND GENERATION SERVICES 5. MPT'S AND DOCOMO'S THIRD GENERATION STRATEGY 6. FACTORS DRIVING EARLY IMPLEMENTATION OF W-CDMA BY NTT DOCOMO 7. MULTI-MEDIA 7.1 Message Services 7.2 Internet Mail 7.3 Banking Services 7.4 Sales Automation Systems 7.5 Car Navigation Systems 7.6 People Navigation Systems 8. MOBILE COMPUTING AND INTERNET ACCESS 9. COMPETITION IN THIRD GENERATION HANDSETS 10. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INTRODUCTION Third generation mobile phone services will start in Japan in the year 2001. NTT Docomo plans to start W-CDMA services in March 2001 in Tokyo based on its W-CDMA (Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access) standard. Other carriers will start services at the same time as, or soon after Docomo. A consortium of Japan Telecom, Air Touch, and Nissan plan to start services in April 2001 while KDD and DDI/IDO have announced they will start services in September, 2001 and December 2001 respectively. Docomo's desire to implement W-CDMA is driven primarily by shortages of frequency. Docomo has already implemented half-rate PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) and smaller cells as well as purchased adjacent frequency space in order to increase the number of subscribers that the PDC system can accommodate. It also plans to introduce dual-mode PHS (Personal Handyphone System) and PDC phones in April, 1999 in order to move some of its cellular traffic over to the fairly open PHS frequencies. Nevertheless, in spite of these efforts, Docomo's frequency space is expected to fill up during the early years of the 21st century. The decision by the European Technology Standards Institute (ETSI) to adopt Docomo's technology as a major part of its third generation standard gives Japanese manufacturers the opportunity to significantly expand their share of the worldwide cellular phone business. Partly due to the unique analog (NTT standard) and digital (PDC) standards previously adopted by Japan, that country's firms have been forced to develop different phones for their domestic and foreign markets and thus have less than 20% of the worldwide cellular phone business. It now appears that most carriers who now offer GSM services will adopt Docomo's W-CDMA standard. Since GSM services are offered in more than 100 countries with more than 100 million subscribers (as compared to 12 million for IS95 CDMA) as of mid-1998, it is very likely that Docomo's W-CDMA technology will become the defacto worldwide third generation standard. NTT Docomo announced in April, 1997 that it had invited Ericsson, Lucent, Fujitsu, NEC, and Matsushita to supply infrastructure and Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Toshiba to supply handsets for the experimental systems. For handsets, it is generally argued that Matsushita, NEC, and Mitsubishi were chosen for historical reasons, Sharp and Toshiba were chosen for their successful handheld computers (Zaurus for Sharp and Libretto for Toshiba), and Motorola and Nokia were chosen for political reasons. These firms are now working with NTT Docomo in Yokosuka, Japan. The Japan Telecom consortium is carrying out tests with equipment from NEC and Ericsson (they also supplied Japan Telecom with PDC equipment). The IDO/DDI are carrying out tests with equipment from NEC and Motorola (its supplier of IS95 CDMA equipment), Lucent, NEC, and Fujitsu. No announcements have been made concerning handset suppliers. There are more than 15 suppliers of PDC handsets and most of them are expected to enter Japan's third generation market. This report summarizes the strategies of Japanese firms and provides forecasts for the third generation (W-CDMA) mobile phone business and applications, in Japan. ======================================================================== [The remaining sections of this report are available to ATIP subscribers] Tokyo Office: Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP) Harks Roppongi Building 1F 6-15-21 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 Tel: +81 3 5411-6670; Fax: +81 3 5411-6671 U.S. Office: Asian Technology Information Program (ATIP) PO Box 9678 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87119 Tel: (505) 842-9020; Fax: (505) 766-5166 For further information Send email to : info () atip or jp Access WorldWideWeb Site : http://www.atip.or.jp/ ATIP: An autonomous US non-profit, that collaborates with other public, private, and educational organizations, worldwide, to analyze and disseminate information about Asian science and technology. ======================================================================== [Complete ATIP reports on Asian Science and Technology goes to subscribers and collaborating organizations by direct distribution, or via electronic access. These contain text and often, charts, graphs and pictures. Reports for unrestricted distribution often contain summarized, or abstracted information. Sponsors can also obtain specific follow up information - including copies of proceedings, selected papers, exhibition particulars, updates, translations, query searches, etc. Contact ATIP at INFO () ATIP OR JP] =====================END OF REPORT ATIP99.017a=========================== [The remaining sections of this report are available to ATIP subscribers]
Current thread:
- IP: Japan's Third Generation Mobile Communication Handsets Dave Farber (Mar 05)