Japan's Carriers DDI&IDO ready to launch CDMA service.
Japan's DDI, IDO Announce Nationwide CDMA Service
March 12, 1999
TOKYO, JAPAN, Newsbytes via NewsEdge Corporation : The eight cellular companies of the DDI Cellular and Nippon Ido Tsushin (IDO) groups in Japan have announced plans to launch nationwide CDMA (code division multiple access) services from April 14. The new service will also support wireless Internet access from cellphones using WAP.
DDI Cellular, which is based in Osaka, began roll out of its CDMA services in July 1998 when the system was launched in Kansai, Kyushu and Okinawa regions. It will complete roll out in all its services areas, which cover the whole of Japan except the Kanto and Tokai regions, on April 14.
IDO, which fills in the gap in DDI's service and operates in the Kanto and Tokai regions, which includes Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya, will launch services on the same day. Nationwide coverage will be 94 percent on service launch and this is expected to rise to 99 percent by mid 2000.
The Tokyo-based operator is already advertising its new CDMA service, which it is marketing under the cdmaOne brand name, in its service areas. The key selling point initially is clarity of calls which are said to be near those of landline phones. This in stark contrast to the low-quality calls now offered on Japanese cellular phones, mainly as a result of chronic overcrowding on the airwaves.
Mobile computer users are also being offered the promise of an ISDN-equivalent 64 kilobit per second data service in the near future, although the service will only support 14.4 kbps at launch.
Another key selling point will be the ability to roam overseas. At present, Japanese cellular users have been unable to use their telephones in other countries because of incompatibility and foreign visitors to Japan have been similarly frustrated by the inability to use their phones.
CDMA systems are in operation or planned in 30 countries, said IDO, and global roaming services will be offered. The carrier has already promised to have an agreement signed in South Korea in time for the World Cup in 2002, which will be jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea, but has yet to put dates on other roaming launches.
Mirroring the company's target audience, of businesspeople in their 20s and 30s who are unsatisfied with current cellular telephones, IDO announced a range of different calling plans.
The most basic will cost 4,500 yen (US$38) per month and will come with 1,600 yen ($13.40) worth of free calls, equivalent to around 40 minutes, and then features charges of 10 yen ($0.08) per 15 seconds. The most expensive rate, designed for heavy users, will cost 32,000 yen ($268) per month but come with 27,000 yen ($225), or up to 30 hours, of free calls and then a rate of 10 yen per 40 seconds.
Data calls on the CDMA phones will cost 15 yen ($0.13) per minute or 10 yen per minute when used with the Internet services of KDD or DDI, which have direct connections with the IDO network.
Users will also be able to access the Internet and e-mail without the use of a personal computer on some of the telephones with the EZaccess system, a system based on WAP (wireless application protocol), a growing standard for wireless Internet access. Basic subscriptions to the service will be 700 yen per month from July and access will be charged at 10 yen per minute.
Exchange rate: $1 = 119.50 yen
Reported By Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com
(19990311/WIRES ASIA, TELECOM/)
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[Copyright 1999, NewsBytes]
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