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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (32564)	2/18/2003 7:02:58 AM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196986

DoCoMo defends 3G service REUTERS Tuesday, February 18, 2003 technology.scmp.com Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo on Monday defended its domestic high-speed wireless network, saying better handsets, wider coverage and services like video calling ensured the service would rebound from a disappointing first year. It also said its plan to spend billions of yen helping sceptical manufacturers meet the expense of developing third-generation (3G) handsets would pay for itself by boosting subscribers, lowering its costs and bringing in royalty payments as the manufacturers sell the handsets to other operators. "I am certain that WCDMA [wideband code division multiple access] will pay us back," DoCoMo chief technology officer Kota Kineshita said, using the term for the technology that underlies its 3G system. The difficulties NTT DoCoMo has met in launching the first 3G network in the world are being closely watched in Europe, where operators have spent nearly US$100 billion on licences for the high-speed systems that offer video e-mail and video calls. European operators are struggling with huge debts and lacklustre demand from consumers and many have delayed the launch of their 3G networks. Later this year, the first 3G network in Europe will launch under the name "3", controlled by Hutchison Whampoa. After targeting more than one million subscribers for its first year, DoCoMo was forced to drastically scale back because customers balked at its heavy handsets with short battery life and the poor geographic coverage of its network. Mr Kineshita said these problems were in the past as the company expands its coverage and brings to market new handsets with longer battery life and 3G features like video calling. The current generation of handsets has a battery life of 250 hours, still shy of second generation battery life of some 400 hours, but a giant leap from the 55 hours of its first devices. And Mr Kineshita said DoCoMo would launch new handsets with video calling as a standard feature in May. Mr Kineshita said a 30-second video call was currently 1.8 times more expensive than a voice call, and that DoCoMo aimed to make it cheap enough for consumers to regard it as a commodity voice call. A video call took up four times the capacity of a voice call, he said. The company has said it expects to have about 320,000 subscribers by the end of March. Mr Kineshita said DoCoMo would make the target, but only by a whisker. "Yes, I think we will just make it," he said. DoCoMo's slow start with its fast network is in stark contrast to Japanese rivals which upgraded to a technology known as CDMA2000 1x which is slightly slower than DoCoMo's technology but which signed up millions of users in just a few months. Handset makers sceptical DoCoMo said in January that it would spend as much as 40 billion yen (about US$332.7 million) in subsidies for up to ten 3G models this year. The figure represents about half the cost normally shouldered entirely by manufacturers. "Since the 3G handsets are not selling very much... the situation was that makers were not able to get a return on their investments," Mr Kineshita said. Mr Kineshita said the subsidy arrangement with NEC, Matsushita Panasonic and Fujitsu was currently due to end in March 2004, but that it could be extended if it yielded good results. A source close to DoCoMo said US handset maker Motorola was in discussions about developing a handset for the Japanese firm. Mr Kineshita declined to comment specifically but said the company was not interested in restricting manufacturing to Asia. "We do not care which country the handset providers come from as long as they can provide us with good quality handsets," Mr Kineshita said. Motorola declined to comment. Mr Kineshita said the Japanese 3G handsets could be sold in Europe, but declined to comment on how DoCoMo's subsidies could give Japanese handset makers an edge when competing with European players like Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson.

To: John Biddle who wrote (32564)	3/4/2003 10:44:46 AM
From: quick_thinking	Respond to of 196986

Thank you Duncan Lau Chiu Pui for a great update from Hong-Kong and a comparison with Japan. > There is no MMS (multimedia messaging service) in Japan, which is looking to Hong Kong as a model. May I just suggest a small correction to what you are writing: I don't think many people will agree that there is no MMS in Japan! In actual fact, four competing carriers offer picture mails and three carriers offer movie mails, i.e. you can record and send short (up to 5 or 10 second) color movies with your mobile phone and send them across the internet to PCs or to other mobile phones. For all practical purposes there is MMS in Japan since November 2000, i.e. for more than 2 years now. For more information see the Shamail-FAQ: eurotechnology.com and our Shamail-report: eurotechnology.com My 2 cents from Tokyo, quick_thinking