Tag: 3g

  • 3G mobile diversity in China

    3G mobile diversity in China

    China’s Ministry MIIT granted three different 3G cellphone licenses on January 7, 2009:

    • a TD-SCDMA license to China Mobile (457 million GSM subscribers)
    • a wCDMA license to China Unicom (133 million GSM subscribers)
    • a CDMA2000 license to China Telecom (43 million CDMA subscribers acquired in 2008 from China Unicom, 216 million fixnet phone subscribers, 38 million broadband subscribers)

    MIIT estimates that the operators will invest about US$ 41 Billion for 3G over the next two years, ie about US$ 20.5 Billion/year – about the same annual rate as Japan’s 3G investments every year over the last 8 years since 3G introduction.

    Network technology diversity (instead of the Government deciding on a single radio technology standard) means that China’s mobile market a few years down the road may have some similarities to Japan’s today. Several Japanese companies, including “time machine company” SoftBank are working to bring 3G mobile services and technologies from Japan to China.

    In our opinion, competition between different 3G radio network technologies is one of the factors driving Japan’s 3G success story.

    MIIT decided not to abandon CDMA2000, in order to enhance competition between technologies. Another factor may have been that Japan’s CDMA2000 operator KDDI was initially much more successful in bringing 3G to market than competitors DoCoMo and Vodafone (which sold Japan operations to SoftBank).

    In Japan it was not market leader DoCoMo or Vodafone, but KDDI with CDMA2000 winning the 3G introduction battle. Better be prepared for surprises in China too, and don’t underestimate China Telecom.

    US$ 41 billion for 3G in China over 2 years is similar to the figures for Japan.

    Japan’s mobile operators have invested a around US$ 15 – 20 Billion every year for more than 10 years (for details see our JCOMM report), very similar in size to expected annual 3G investments for all of China.

    Japan’s 3G introduction took about 8-9 years (from October 2001 until 2009/2010 – Japan’s last 2G phone was shipped in December 2007). Therefore we expect 3G introduction to take about 10 years for China – could be faster because China can learn from 3G introduction in other countries.

    China's planned 3G investments compared to Japanese mobile phone network investments
    China’s planned 3G investments compared to Japanese mobile phone network investments

    China opts for network diversity – like US and Japan

    The figure below – from our JCOMM report about Japan’s telecom sector – shows the 2G -> 3G transition in Japan, where several networks with different technologies compete in the market place. We believe this competition between different technologies is a key factor for the rapid success of 3G in Japan.

    China having chosen multiple competing technologies, we may see a similar 3G success story as in Japan, however with much larger subscription numbers.

    Japan's mobile network diversity - overview of competing networks
    Japan’s mobile network diversity – overview of competing networks

    Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Last 2G phone shipped 8 months ago in Japan, 2G networks are switched off

    Last 2G phone shipped 8 months ago in Japan, 2G networks are switched off

    KDDI/AU switched off 2G radio network in March 2008, Docomo and SoftBank to switch off 2G networks in 2009

    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 2008, 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).

    2G vs 3G phones in Japan
    2G vs 3G phones in Japan

    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.

    Copyright (c) 2008-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Will the iPhone trigger a turning point in Japan’s mobile phone industry?

    Will the iPhone trigger a turning point in Japan’s mobile phone industry?

    Tetsuzo Matsumoto (Senior Executive Vice-President and Board Member of SOFTBANK MOBILE Corporation),
    Gerhard Fasol (CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK)
    and
    Dennis Normile (Japan Correspondent of SCIENCE Magazine, and FCCJ)
    discuss about the future of Japan’s mobile phone market.

    “Will the iPhone trigger a turning point in Japan’s mobile phone industry?”
    (Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Tokyo Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 12:00-14:00)

    (Photo: Copyright Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, used with permission)

    panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on the topic "Will The iPhone Trigger A Turning Point In Japan's Mobile Phone Industry?"
    panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on the topic “Will The iPhone Trigger A Turning Point In Japan’s Mobile Phone Industry?”

    Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • How many iPhones were sold in July 2008 in Japan?

    How many iPhones were sold in July 2008 in Japan?

    How many iPhones did SoftBank sell in Japan during July?

    Our estimate: between 75,000 – 125,000. Read on about how we arrived at this estimate.

    Net growth of mobile subscription numbers in Japan (Japan’s mobile market grows by about 5.5 million per year – for more analysis read our JCOMM-Report).

    Growth/loss of mobile subscriptions of Japan's mobile operators during the period 2006-2008
    Growth/loss of mobile subscriptions of Japan’s mobile operators during the period 2006-2008

    How did we arrive at the estimate of 75,000-125,000 iPhones sold in Japan during July?

    When we analyze the Figure above, we can see that SoftBank‘s subscriber numbers increased by 158,900 during June 2008, and the monthly increase jumped to 215,400 during July 2008. We can also see that for no other month except for March 2006, March 2007, and March 2008 was there such a jump (in Japan March is the month of peak mobile phone sales, because new jobs traditionally start with the beginning of the financial year on April, 1). Since SoftBank did not introduce any other spectacular phones during July 2008, we can safely assume that most of the 56,500 net increase jump from June to July are iPhone sales to new subscribers, or new subscriptions for second phones, or number portability users moving over from DoCoMo or KDDI. However, this number would not count current SoftBank subscribers who are upgrading existing subscriptions from a previous older phone to an iPhone. Since we are not aware that SoftBank announces this number, we need to estimate it. If we assume that there were equal numbers of new subscriptions for iPhones as replacements, we would arrive at an estimate of 100,000 iPhones sold during July 2008 in Japan. If we estimate, that this second assumption has a +/- 50% error margin, then we arrive at an estimate of between 75,000-125,000 iPhones sold in Japan during July 2008.

    Our estimate: about 640,000 – 1 Million iPhones may be sold in Japan during 2008:

    If we assume that iPhone sales in Japan will continue at the current rate, then we can estimate that between 640,000 – 1 Million iPhones could be sold during the remaining part of 2008 in Japan, which would be about 1.2% – 2% of mobile phones sold during 2008.

    Copyright (c) 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • 3G Summit and Mobile Payment workshop

    3G Summit and Mobile Payment workshop

    Mobile Payment workshop and Global 3G Evolution Forum in Tokyo – Makuhari

    3GPP, UMTS-Forum, Verizon and Docomo and others

    22-25 January 2007 MarcusEvans organized the “Global 3G Evolution Forum” in Makuhari near Tokyo.

    Speakers included:

    • Takanori Utano, Executive Vice-President and CTO of DoCoMo,
    • Takehiro Nakamura of NTT and Vice-Chairman of 3GPP
    • Jean-Pierre Bienaime, Chairman of the UMTS-Forum,
    • Gaston Ormazabal of Verizon Labs

    and many other leading mobile communications managers from all over the world.

    Jointly with Jan Larsson, General Strategy Manager of TeliaSonera International Carrier division, I chaired all sessions all day on Wednesday January 24, 2007.

    Workshop on mobile payments

    On Monday, January 22, 2007, I held a three hour workshop about “Mobile Payment”.

    Mobile payment Japan, e-money and mobile credit report:

    Copyright 2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • DoCoMo speeds up 3G by 10 times

    DoCoMo has upgraded radio networks to 3.6 Mbps in the Tokyo region, and NEC’s N902iX handsets will be released very shortly.

    DoCoMo has upgraded 3G networks in the Tokyo region to 3.6 Mbps (data download) in the Tokyo region using HSDPA technology (HSDPA = High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), and will soon sell NEC’s N902iX handsets. HSDPA upgrades will come to the Kansai (Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe) region from autumn 2006.

    DoCoMo announced that during 2007 the data uplink (sending data from mobile phones) will be upgraded to 1 to 2 Mbps, which is a substantial improvement to FOMA’s present 64 kbps upload speed.

    DoCoMo/FOMA download speed: 3.6 Mbps (summer 2006 in the Tokyo region, Osaka/Kansai and other regions to follow)

    DoCoMo/FOMA upload speed: 1 … 2 Mbps (from 2007)

    NEC mobile phone handset N902iX for NTT docomo's  HSDPA network
    NEC mobile phone handset N902iX for NTT docomo’s HSDPA network

    Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Vodafone not so big in Japan – The Economist says

    Vodafone not so big in Japan – The Economist says

    The Economist looks at Vodafone’s real situation in Japan’s very advanced and hyper-competitive telecommunications market

    Vodafone not so big in Japan: Vodafone is struggling to catch up with Docomo’s introduction of 3G in Japan

    An article in The Economist about Vodafone is partly based on our analysis:

    Vodafone not so big in Japan: “Vodafone- Not so big in Japan” (The Economist, Sept 30th, 2004)

    Understand Softbank: our report: “SoftBank today and 300 year vision”

    pdf file, approx 120 pages, 47 figures 18 photos, 7 tables

    Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • 21.6 million 3G subscribers in Japan (31 August 2004)

    The mobile phone subscriber statistics for August 2004 in Japan came out:

    3G subscribers:

    KDDI/AU: 15,511,800 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 86.1%
    DoCoMo: 5,900,200 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 12.6%
    Vodafone: 237,600 subscribers, conversion rate to 3G: 1.6%

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • KDDI/AU has 80% of users on 3G

    80% of KDDI/AU users are now converted to 3G, and KDDI/AU does not sell any 2G phones any more: only 3G and 3.5G (2.4Mbps data download).

    Conversion to 3G in Japan: AU leads, DoCoMo and Vodafone follow. Vodafone's 3G conversion has stalled because of lack or attractive handsets in Japan and too low investment in 3G base stations
    Conversion to 3G in Japan: AU leads, DoCoMo and Vodafone follow. Vodafone’s 3G conversion has stalled because of lack or attractive handsets in Japan and too low investment in 3G base stations

    Here is KDDI/AU‘s newest 3.5G phone – the W21SA, for 2.4Mbps data download:

    KDDI 3G mobile handset W21SA
    KDDI 3G mobile handset W21SA

    More about Japan’s mobile telecom sector:Eurotechnology Japan report on Japan’s telecom industry

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • 3G: "Vision, meet reality" (Economist on ITU vision for 3G)

    Just read an article in the Economist:

    “Mobile 3G telecoms: Vision, meet reality”

    which quotes ITU’s 2000 vision for 3G (ITU = International Telecommunication Union):

    The device will function as a phone, a computer, a television, a pager, a videoconferencing centre, a newspaper, a diary and even a credit card…it will support not only voice communications but also real-time video and full-scale multimedia. It will automatically search the internet for relevant news and information on pre-selected subjects, book your next holiday for you online and download a bedtime story for your child, complete with moving pictures. It will even be able to pay for goods when you shop via wireless electronic funds transfer. In short, the new mobile handset will become the single, indispensable “life tool”, carried everywhere by everyone, just like a wallet or purse is today.

    Interestingly, every single detail of ITU’s 2000 3G-vision has now been realized now by DoCoMo in Japan.

    Copyright·©1997-2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition (Tokyo, July 21-23, 2004)

    Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition (Tokyo, July 21-23, 2004)

    FeliCa mobile payment wallet phones at the centre of attention

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Wireless, mobile phone industry trends years before they reach outside Japan

    Every year the Wireless Japan sets global trends in wireless communications and mobile phones. Mobile phone industry professionals cannot afford to miss this trend setting show. It is here that Japanese carriers and handset makers introduce their latest products and show design studies and concept phones which set industry trends for the next months and years.

    There were some surprises: In recent Wireless-Japan shows usually the KDDI/AU-design project prototypes were at the center of attention – this year I could not find any. For example, at Wireless-Japan-2002, KDDI/AU showed “Infobar” prototypes a full 16 months before market introduction. Did KDDI/AU decide to keep future design-project releases secret until they hit the market? Could well be so, given Japan’s increasingly ferocious mobile phone competition. Another surprise was Vodafone’s absence – Vodafone in recent years used to have the biggest show.

    On the other hand this time most handset makers showed impressive concept phones, Matsushita/Panasonic under the heading “Beyond 3G”. The image shows NEC’s concept design study of a flexible multimedia phone: this phone has two screens which can be bent together, and used jointly as a larger screen.

    Wireless Japan 2004 Highlights: “Beyond 3G”

    Beyond 3G: SANYO 3.5G phone for 2.4Mbps data download (for KDDI/AU):

    KDDI/AU 3G phone W21SA
    KDDI/AU 3G phone W21SA
    SANYO show at Wireless Japan 2004
    SANYO show at Wireless Japan 2004

    Wireless Japan 2004: NEC “tag” wrapping multimedia design concept phone:

    Concept model phone by NEC at WirelessJapan-2004 exhibition
    Concept model phone by NEC at WirelessJapan-2004 exhibition

    “Wireless Japan 2004” – much was expected: for example, it wasn’t surprising for anyone that DoCoMo’s i-Mode-FeliCa wallet-phones were center stage of the DoCoMo exhibit with lots of partners demoing wallet-phone applications.

    NEC concept phone
    NEC concept phone
    NEC concept phone
    NEC concept phone

    Matsushita/Panasonic “Beyond 3G” design concepts:

    Panasonic concept phone
    Panasonic concept phone

    DoCoMo UbiButton and UbiChip:

    DoCoMo's UbiButton and UbiChip
    DoCoMo’s UbiButton and UbiChip

    DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones – for electronic cash:

    the world's first commercial wallet phone: P506iC - by DoCoMo and Panasonic
    the world’s first commercial wallet phone: P506iC – by DoCoMo and Panasonic

    DoCoMo i-Mode-FeliCa wallet phones – as an electronic door key:

    Mobile phone as a RFID key to lock and unlock doors
    Mobile phone as a RFID key to lock and unlock doors

    We have substantial documentation about the Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition, and most other year’s Wireless Japan exhibitions. If you need information or documentation for prior art or other investigations, please contact us.

    Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

    Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Wireless Japan 2003 exhibition (Tokyo, July 16-18, 2003)

    Wireless Japan 2003 exhibition (Tokyo, July 16-18, 2003)

    Japan shows advanced applications of 3G wireless communications

    3G concept phones, 3G video, mobile payment, doorlooking via 3G

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

    Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Wireless Japan 2002 exhibition (July 17-19, 2002) in Tokyo

    Wireless Japan 2002 exhibition (July 17-19, 2002) in Tokyo

    Global mobile trends start in Japan

    by Gerhard Fasol

    Docomo’s first 3G phones, KDDI brings design to mobile phones

    The annual Wireless-Japan exhibition highlights the trends of mobile communications in Japan. At Wireless-Japan 2002 KDDI started setting the trend of concept phones.

    KDDI/AU “Design Project:” Design study for the bestselling “INFOBAR”.

    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype
    KDDI/AU design series prototype

    The KDDI/AU design study above became the origin of the bestselling “INFOBAR”-3G phone.

    And here are two images of the bestselling “INFOBAR”-phone in the version sold by KDDI.

    KDDI/AU design series - Infobar
    KDDI/AU design series – Infobar

    Design study by AU/KDDI for future mobile handsets. This design study was the basis for the PENCK model sold by KDDI/AU at a later date.

    KDDI/AU design series prototype: PENCK
    KDDI/AU design series prototype: PENCK

    Big Blue Vending machine for mobile internet usage by IBM

    IBM vending machines for mobile payment
    IBM vending machines for mobile payment

    Combined mobile phone and television receiver by DoCoMo:

    starting a trend to mobile TV

    DoCoMo prototype phone for mobile TV
    DoCoMo prototype phone for mobile TV

    Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) linked to mobile phones by DoCoMo
    gradually DoCoMo is introducing payment applications to mobile phones. In 2004, two years later, DoCoMo introduces the walletphone.

    IY Bank (later renamed 7-Bank) ATM protoype
    IY Bank (later renamed 7-Bank) ATM protoype

    Karaoke Machine linked to mobile phones by DoCoMo

    Linking Karaoke to mobile phones
    Linking Karaoke to mobile phones

    FOMA video telephone and MOPPET fixed line video telephony terminal, allows video conversation between FOMA mobile phone and fixed line telephone.

    More information about 3G in Japan and FOMA: www.eurotechnology.com/3G/.

    NTT Moppet
    NTT Moppet

    SH2101V handheld PC and video camera for FOMA (3G) use, including video camera

    DoCoMo 3G prototype multi-media phone SH2101V
    DoCoMo 3G prototype multi-media phone SH2101V

    We have substantial documentation about the Wireless Japan 2002 exhibition, and most other year’s Wireless Japan exhibitions. If you need information or documentation for prior art or other investigations, please contact us.

    Learn more: report on Japan’s telecom sector (269 pages, pdf file):

    Copyright 1997-2013 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved