Hutchison Telecom, DDI, IDO and Shinsegi Team Up
To Provide International Automatic CDMA Roaming
Service in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea
HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 1999--Leading cdmaOne network
operators Hutchison Telecom of Hong Kong, DDI and IDO of Japan and Shinsegi
Telecomm Inc. of Korea have signed a Memorandum of Understanding today aimed at
providing cdmaOne customers with a truly comprehensive global roaming service.
Under the memorandum, roaming subscribers will be able to use a single handset and a mobile number to make calls on
cdmaOne networks in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea as well as in other Asian countries, the US and Canada.
The new service, which is expected to be launched in December 1999, will be a world first by the four telecommunications
partners.
To provide more convenient international cdmaOne roaming services, Kyocera, who has recently launched its Iridium phone,
will develop a new all-band handset using cdmaOne technology to provide automatic access to cdmaOne networks not only
across Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, but also all over the world.
At the memorandum signing ceremony, Hutchison Telecom Director of Sales and Marketing (Wireless) Stephen Ngan said,
''Hong Kong, Japan and Korea are major business and travel destinations, and the number of people visiting the three areas is
growing rapidly. In line with this growth, the demand for a more convenient roaming service has also been increasing among the
three areas.''
According to DDI Director Mr. Sakai, ''We prides our cdmaOne service that is standardized all over the world and consider
that it is so worthy of launching International Roaming Service as one of the valuable service of cdmaOne among 3 countries in
Asia in the first place. We hope we succeed in launching International Roaming and expedite to prevail cdmaOne in the world.''
IDO Director Mr. Oki Hashi added, ''We believe that the new service also means that in addition to network subscribers from
the three Asian markets, the 16 million other CDMA users around the world will be able to enjoy a truly global roaming
service.''
Shinsegi Telecomm's Director of Strategic Planning Shin Koo Park said, ''By the time Shinsegi launched its CDMA cellular
service 3 years ago, there were few CDMA carriers in the world. Since then, CDMA has been gaining a larger footprint
around the world, which has enabled CDMA automatic international roaming to be a potentially major service. This joint MOU
with Hong Kong and Japan will be a big step towards establishing CDMA as a global standard.''
The world's first commercial CDMA network was launched by Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited in
October 1995. Hutchison Telecom now has over 460,000 cdmaOne subscribers who can enjoy automatic roaming services to
over 450 cities around the world. Japan's DDI and IDO and Korea's Shinsegi also operate cdmaOne networks which provide
roaming service in Canada, the US, Australia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and other Asian countries.
Company Profiles
Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa Group. The Company is a leader
in Hong Kong's telecom industry providing comprehensive communications services including mobile phone, paging, IDD, fixed
network and Internet services.
The DDI Cellular Group, consisting of eight regional Cellular Telephone Companies which are subsidiaries of DDI, is providing
cellular services in 800 MHz band since July 1989 and has more than 5 million subscribers as of February 1999. The DDI
Cellular Group has decided to introduce cdmaOne system as migration of their existing analog spectrum and has started the
commercial service in July 1998 in Kansai, Kyushu and Okinawa areas. cdmaOne nationwide service will launch in April 1999
in cooperation with IDO Corporation.
IDO Corporation was established in 1987 and now has a total subscriber base of more than 3 million customers. The company
will start its cdmaOne service in April 1999 to deploy a nationwide cdmaOne service in collaboration with DDI.
Shinsegi Telecomm, Inc. is the second national cellular service provider in Korea which launched in April 1996, one of the first
CDMA cellular services in the world and has acquired 2.4 million subscriber base as of the end of February 1999.
Contact:
Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited
Ms. Frances Ng, 852 - 2128 6739
(Fax) 852 - 2123 1257
Ms. Sally Tsang, 852 - 2128 6708
(Fax) 852 - 2123 1257
Related News Categories: telecom
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