Docomo is going to roll-out
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Here is what the Daily Yomiuri reports:
FOMA fee to be basically fixed
Yomiuri Shimbun
NTT DoCoMo has decided to introduce what will for all intents and
purposes be a fixed price system for its next-generation cellular phone
services, company sources said Friday.
A basic 8,000 yen monthly i-mode fee will allow unlimited use of the i-mode
service, worth up to 120,000 yen, according to the sources.
Currently, the basic monthly i-mode fee for DoCoMo cell phones is 300
yen, which does not include transmission and per-minute charges.
NTT DoCoMo will launch its commercial third-generation service--dubbed
FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access)--in October.
The fixed price system will allow FOMA users cheaper access to the
i-mode service, according to the firm.
Usually, i-mode users are charged according to the size and amount of data
transmitted, as well as how long the transmission takes.
In a bid to have the new service spread quickly in its early stages, however,
DoCoMo will enable users to download and transmit data-intensive content
such as animated images and music without having to worry about the cost.
DoCoMo will apply with the Public Management Ministry for approval of
the 3G services, with the quasi-fixed price system its centerpiece, on
Monday at the earliest, the sources said, adding an official announcement of
the service is likely to be made the same day.
DoCoMo has been engaging in an experiment since May with 4,000
test-users of FOMA cell phones, and intends to launch commercial services
on Oct. 1.
yomiuri.co.jp
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Now, there were earlier statements that the Government wouldn't approve commercial FOMA services if there were problems....
And this is the most recent evaluation of services from 2 weeks ago:
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DoCoMo's 3G service disappoints users in trial Poor battery life, reception problems and lack of content make cellphones 'next to useless'
By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writer
At the end of May, Kazunori Hagiwara was thrilled to be chosen to try out NTT DoCoMo's next-generation cellphone system. But two months after FOMA, the world's first 3G service, kicked off, the new handset sits idle despite a data transmission speed of 384 kilobits per second.
"It's next to useless," said Hagiwara, who hoped to receive about 100 e-mails a day and use the mobile phone on business trips.
Some problems Hagiwara noted were repeatedly disrupted connections, poor battery life and a lack of content specifically designed for the faster transmission speed.
"If those (problems) remain, I won't buy it or recommend it to other people," said Hagiwara, who works in the marketing research section of a computer-related company in Tokyo.
The service only works in limited parts of Tokyo and reception is patchy, particularly around high-rise buildings, he said.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. looked invincible only a year ago but is now struggling toward an uncertain future.
The domestic cellphone market has peaked, and telecommunications stocks have been savaged around the globe, troubling overseas partners and affiliates into which DoCoMo has sunk 1.8 trillion yen since Sept. 1998.
Amid these uncertainties, FOMA's troubles seem to be casting a particularly dark shadow over the company's future.
Most telecom firms, for instance, are hesitating to launch 3G services, which will likely delay the company's goal of forming a global network -- one of FOMA's a major selling points.
3G was seen as the key to new growth because the domestic radio frequency range for conventional cellular phones is nearly saturated.
FOMA's troubles first surfaced in April, when DoCoMo announced it would delay the launch from May to October because of problems with handsets and antenna base infrastructure.
It instead opted to launch a trial service in May in which 4,500 people participated, including Hagiwara. But FOMA has left many users unsatisfied.
According to a DoCoMo survey, 47 percent of the trial group believe FOMA's connection quality is poor, while 53 percent said disruptions under the service are more frequent than with conventional mobile phones.
Engineers at NTT DoCoMo are desperately working to improve connectivity and hope to establish 71 more antenna bases by Oct. 1. There are currently 214.
"Please don't think that we will start the full-fledged service in October without correcting this situation," said Takumi Suzuki of DoCoMo's public relations department.
The battery life issue is also a formidable hurdle. While in call-waiting mode, FOMA cellphones must be recharged after just one day.
Since FOMA handsets use more electricity than conventional cellular phones, LSI semiconductors will have to be improved to extend battery life, according to a top DoCoMo executive in charge of network infrastructure.
"It's not a matter of months but a matter of a year," he said, adding that DoCoMo alone cannot solve the problem and that cooperation among handset makers is becoming a necessity.
3G technology promises wireless distribution of music and video, but the high cost of data transmission poses yet another problem.
Charges for a single data packet, 128 bytes, are set at 0.05 yen for FOMA, or one-sixth of DoCoMo's i-mode service.
But FOMA's transmission bandwidth is 384 kbps, or about 40 times wider than i-mode's 9,600 bps. Ironically, this means users will have to pay more to send or receive those packets.
Without drastic rate reductions, the distribution of music or moving images will be unfeasible, said Hironori Tanaka, vice president and analyst at Morgan Stanley Japan Ltd.
"It would be much cheaper to buy a compact disc" than to download a tune via FOMA, he said.
Aware of such weaknesses, DoCoMo officials have begun stressing that their initial consumer target will be corporate users, who would use FOMA services for business applications.
DoCoMo's prediction for subscription growth for 3G phones is also modest. It plans to start commercial services in a 30-km radius from the heart of Tokyo, targeting 150,000 subscribers by March 2002. Those using DoCoMo's conventional cellular phones number about 38 million.
Tanaka of Morgan Stanley believes that FOMA and related services -- such as e-commerce via mobile phones -- will eventually help increase sales per person.
But the dramatic growth DoCoMo has enjoyed in the past several years, such as the 133 percent jump in pretax profits posted in the 1997 business year, is not likely to be repeated, he said.
"The 3G service won't become a driving force to change DoCoMo within a few years. DoCoMo looks destined to become a company with only modest growth."
According to the latest figures compiled by the Telecommunications Carriers Association, a total of 64.18 million cellular phones are now used in Japan, with population penetration reaching 50.5 percent as of July.
Phone shipments fall Domestic shipments of mobile phones edged down 1.3 percent in June from a year earlier to 4.15 million units, declining for the first time since September 1999, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said Thursday.
The setback was due to sluggish growth of new subscribers, which more than offset an increase in value-termed shipments traced to the launch of high-priced products such as phones equipped with cameras, the association said.
The drop was also a statistical reflection of a 19 percent rise in June 2000, it said.
Shipments of personal handy-phone systems plunged 44 percent to 227,000 units, the fourth straight month of year-to-year declines.
As a result, combined shipments of mobile phones and PHS phones dipped 5 percent to 4.37 million, the first drop since April 2000.
The monthly shipment data were calculated from figures supplied by 16 mobile phone manufacturers and 16 PHS makers.
The Japan Times: Aug. 17, 2001 (C) All rights reserved
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Now.... this cites specific industry sources, including NTT... and specific chronic problems... that won't be resolved by Monday, or October, or January...
So, will NTT apply for services, knowing they will be refused, so they can save face by blaming new delays on the Government (the government being NTT)?
Or, will NTT actually begin commercial services to save face (having the Government's decision under its own thumb) - services that are clearly inferior to user expectations for remedial functioning?
The only question for me is how NTT schemes to engineer a face-saving resolution.
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Most curious to me is why Japan Today - NTT's most shameless cheerleader - has no story.
No notice in the Japan Times either...
And where is Tachikawa?
Why hasn't Tachikawa taken to his throne on the mount and delivered the sacred tablets himself?
This has always been the past pattern.
Why is Tachikawa in the closet for this one? |
