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To: Eric L who wrote (19814)4/28/2002 3:00:50 PM
From: Eric L  Respond to of 34857
 
re: DoCoMo V-Live Video Streaming for FOMA

>> DoCoMo to Offer Video Streaming over its 3G Network

25-Apr-2002
Cellular News

Japan's DoCoMo is to launch a one-to-many video streaming trial service on its 3G network, called V-Live.

The service will stream both live and archived video content to FOMA phones and PDAs connected to PHS phones.

Last September, a DoCoMo-led consortium began testing the platform, developing service applications and studying the marketability of the service. With the trial service, both open and closed content will be offered.

Open content will be accessible from May 15, 2002, on the official V-Live content menu and available to all V-Live subscribers. Content will include music, sports highlights, news, animation, tourist information and more.

Closed content will be available exclusively to the customers of content providers or members of corporate users. Examples of this content include English conversation lessons, internal information for employees, security services (observation from a remote location) and investor relations tools.

The V-Live platform enables video and data content to be transferred in the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and converted into the 3G-324M format for compliance with FOMA video-enabled phones.

The platform employs the MPEG4 (Moving Picture Experts Group-4) standard for data encoding and the AMR standard for voice encoding, so providers can offer content both to FOMA phones and various types of PDAs connected to PHS phones.

DoCoMo also said that it will begin licensing patents for its proprietary W-CDMA technology, on which it's FOMA service is based. Presumably that move is to enable dual mode handsets to be developed that will work on both its network and the WCDMA networks being built in other countries, which are slightly incompatible.

Considering that J-Phone announced yesterday plans to delay its 3G launch in order to ensure international roaming compatibilty, the move seems like a knee-jerk reaction by DoCoMo to protect its own potential roaming revenues (see article below). <<

On J-Phone Launch (and International Roaming)

>> J-Phone Delays 3G To Ensure Roaming Services

24-Apr-2002
Cellular News

Vodafone's Japanese subsidiary, J-Phone has delayed the launch of its 3G network until the end of this year. In a press conference, the company said that it will conduct a trial service from July in the metropolitan areas, with the full commercial launch occurring in December.

The Nihon Keizai newspaper reported that the delay is caused by ongoing modifications to the WCDMA standard which has lead to delays in handset availability.

It would appear then that Vodafone is working to ensure that all their 3G networks use exactly the same WCDMA development so that roaming is easier for their customers. It presumably considers that loosing a few "first mover" customers initially is price worth paying for the long term goal of international compatibility and the resultant, probably substantial roaming revenues.

DoCoMo's 3G networks uses a very slightly different release of the WCDMA standard which may cause problems for Europeans who want to use their 3G handsets on the DoCoMo network, leaving them with only J-Phone as a roaming option. <<

- Eric -



To: Eric L who wrote (19814)4/28/2002 3:19:04 PM
From: Eric L  Respond to of 34857
 
re: Continued Good T-Mobile VoiceStream Sub Growth

* Powertel rolled in

* 508,500 net new subscribers Q1

* Reducing Pre-paid (- 48,200)

* Churn decreased to under 3%

* Sub ARPU still low at US$51 (-$1)

* Blended ARPU US$48

* Still building out

>> VoiceStream Reports Quarterly Subscriber Numbers

26-Apr-2002

The USA's VoiceStream has announced its first quarter results, which now include its purchase of the Powertel network.

In the first quarter, VoiceStream added 508,500 net new subscribers to bring its total subscribers to approximately 7.5 million.

Contract net additions amounted to 556,700 compared to 583,000 contract net additions in the fourth quarter.

Contract churn decreased to under 3% in the first quarter from 3.3% in the fourth quarter.

The pre-pay customer base shrank by 48,200 customers. Capital expenditures amounted to $419 million in the first quarter.

Subscriber ARPU was US$51 in the first quarter compared to US$52 in the fourth quarter.

Blended ARPU, including prepaid and roaming revenues, amounted to US$48. <<

- Eric -