Wireless/Mobile Broadband In Japan

Japan : 60 millions 3G subscribers, and competition is growing with mobile number portability (MNP) kicked in in October. 2 main cellular operators; NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have seperately announced plan for the high speed data access, in which DoCoMo is using WCDMA/HSDPA while KDDI relies on CDMA2000/EV-DO Revesion A (see this report).

This is the latest wireless technology playground where WCDMA/HSDPA, UMTS TDD (also known as TD-CDMA), and CDMA2000/EV-DO were or will be deployed.

As of early this year, DoCoMo have been aggressively introducing new HSDPA capable into service, handset jointly developed by DoCoMo and its partners like Motorola, NEC and Fujitsu respectively. Watch out for the Softbank Mobile and eMobile in year 2007, these 2 operators will probably be extremely aggressive in rolling out the next generation network, and try to grab as much market share as possible.

Mobile Operators: NTT DoCoMo, Softbank, KDDI, eMobile, IP Mobile.

EV-DO Rev A to take on HSDPA in Japan. The fierce competition between Japan's three dominant mobile carriers entered a new phase August 31 when NTT DoCoMo began HSDPA service in central Tokyo with a single NEC handset capable of data packet downloads of up to 3.6 Mbps - ten times the speed of the fastest previous FOMA handsets. There is no extra charge for HSDPA service. source http://www.wirelesswatch.jp