KDDI Delays Launch Until April 02

date: September 21, 2001

KDDI Corp. said it will postpone the launch of its 3G mobile phone service, "1x," until April 1, 2002.

The company had originally planed to start the service in the autumn of 2001. The delay in the development of infrastructure software for 1x has forced the telephone carrier to postpone the launch of its service. For the present, the company will provide users with new applications, including the moving image distribution service, using the cdmaOne mobile phone network now in use.

From December 2001, the number-two carrier in Japan will enhance the data transmission speed of its browser phone service "EZweb" from the present 14.4kbps to 64kbps throughout the country. At the same time, the company will start the following three new application services: (1) the moving-image distribution service for mobile phones named "ezmovie," (2) the positional information service using GPS named "eznavigation," and (3) the advanced version of "ezplus," the Java application service for mobile phones which was launched in July 2001.

The "ezmovie" service enables users to watch the moving-image contents shown on the screen of a mobile phone. The maximum data transmission speed of this service is 64kbps. The details of the contents are now under discussion. As for the moving-image compression technology, the company will adopt the international standard "MPEG-4." "Eznavigation" is a location information service using "gpsOne" which enables the user to find the place where the mobile device is currently used, with the maximum error of plus or minus several meters. "GpsOne" is a location information system using both the cdmaOne network and the GPS satellite. The advanced version of "ezplus" enables HTTP communications between a mobile device and servers, which is impossible in the present service.

The company plans to continue selling the mobile phones which are compatible with the present 14.4kbps EZweb and the high-performance devices which enable the moving-image distribution, as another lineup of products, even after it launches the CDMA2000 1x service next year. KDDI also plans to install the WAP2.0-based browser into all of its devices. "WAP2.0" is a global standard of the browser phone.

After preparing new applications, including the moving image distribution service, as mentioned earlier, KDDI will start introducing the "1x" service with the maximum data transmission speed of 144kbps from April 2002. In the initial stage, it will launch the 1x service in Japan's major cities using the present 800MHz band. By the autumn of 2002, the company will introduce the 1x service using the 2GHz band. The fees for the communication services of the 64kbps EZweb and 1x have yet to be decided.

Top Sellers at our online store

1.	NEC e606 on 3
2.	Orange Nokia 7250i
3.	O2 Samsung A800
4.	NEC e808 on 3
5.	Motorola A920 on 3

last updated: January 12, 2004

Visit our online store, click here

3 phones

3G Motorola A920
Available Now! Superb full colour touch- sensitive screen with a built-in digital camera for Video Calling.
Buy now from Free

M-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services
ISBN: 0470847751

This book discusses 3G services from the view of what is needed for the service to provide value to the user, what is the value proposition for the user, how will money be made out of delivering the service, and discussions on how revenue sharing propositions might work to benefit content providers and network operators. 3G operators should take note of this highly recommended book.

buy it UK | USA

3G Books to Read!

top