You know how China is a land of freedom in terms of copyright laws, with all those small brands copying Nokia phones and iPhones with the sole consequence of making (good) money. Now how about a big brand copying another big brand, this time being staged in the land of Japan? Jump for more drama.
ÂÂ
Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo announced this morning that for the first time in the world, they have managed a 100% population 3G coverage with their WCDMA network. The last 2 villages with reception towers installed are both in Okinawa, where they don’t even speak proper Japanese. The towers will be powered up on Mar28. Take note that this is only population coverage but not area coverage, but you can expect that there’ll be 3G signals as long as there is a village. (We have no way to assess DoCoMo’s definition of a “village”) The company will continue to expand their coverage area (in rural areas) with the new 1.7Ghz band that they obtained from the government, on top of the ongoing HSDPA upgrading. You can call NTT obsessive for building towers in places where nobody uses cellphones anyway, but don’t forget that a lot of so-called developed countries don’t even have a satisfactory 2G coverage, cough ATT cough Vodafone. –Sam Chan
Press release [NTT DoCoMo]
One of the reasons of choosing a cellphone operator over another would be coverage, but no matter how good the network is there are always blind spots, this is especially true when you are 3G users (higher frequency lower diffraction), out of the city center, or even in your own room sometimes. NTT DoCoMo has got it figured out and started selling this box-like household antenna for you to put next to the window, dragging a 3.5 meters long cable and attach to your phone. There should be no chance of missing any calls anymore, if you are a frequent mobile internet user, this would speed things up a bit too. The model itself measures 10×10x4cm and weighs just under 300 grams. The best part is that the suggested retail price is only 25USD so you should seriously consider picking up one of these if you live in Japan and are users of the latest 903i/703i series. The antenna can take signals from the usual 2Ghz as well as the 1.7Ghz FOMA-plus area coverage at the suburb. For users with older phones including the PDC ones, you can pick up some of the older and less attractive models. –Sam Chan
Accessories [NTT DoCoMo]
Press Release (Translated from Japanese) [NTT DoCoMo]
We’ve probably all seen movies where special agents locate eachother on a GPS map and chat. We can actually do that in real life now, if you live in Japan and happen to use NTT DoCoMo’s newer FOMA phones (903i series or beyond). All you have to do is to have the iMapFan JAVA application running at the background, when a friend locates you, a message will be sent to notify you to switch back to the chat screen. The service charges 25USD per month, and you only have to pay when you hold the conversation, it is free for the person invited. — Sam Chan
Press Release [Mapfan Japan]
What da heck right? Yeah, what da heck, but that’s what fujitsu did at the press conference this morning, having the F703i phone ringing in the tub with a model, just to let the world know how important and beautiful it is to have a waterproof phone. “Moshi moshi!” We feel sorry for her- hopefully she’s paid well. Oh yeah, the phone can be washed over the tap, see? Apparently they’ve been developing this for 3 years, and managed to halve the thickness. Bravo.
Bravo to the marketing, too. What da heck. — Sam Chan
Press Conference [ITmedia +D]
Just 4 hours after AU KDDI’s announcement, NTT DoCoMo announced the new WCDMA 703i series in Tokyo. Nothing out of our expectation as we wrote about before. Also announced are the SonyEricsson BRAVIA SO903iTV DMB phone and Mitsubishi’s double-internal screen D900iDS, both of which Gearfuse premiered on Sunday. The 703i series is the mid-low end of DoCoMo’s 3G portfolio, so don’t compare their specifications with that of the W5 series from AU KDDI. Take note that all these phones will only be available in Japan and Japan only, they will not be unlockable, and neither will other versions be released outside Japan as they are co-developed between NTT DoCoMo and the manufacturers. We have pictures and details of all these cool looking phones after the jump.
If you are a phone geek, than you will be aware of the buttonless dual-internal-screen flip phones that NTT DoCoMo showcased a while ago. Well, we got good news here because apparently Mitsubishi is going to bring this out commercially, putting it under NTT DoCoMo’s 800i (D800iDS?) series. — Sam Chan
We managed to get hold of pictures of almost the whole 703i series from NTT DoCoMo and we’re really excited about the announcement. The 703i series is the mid-range WCDMA line of NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G service. It consists of Fujitsu F703i, Mitsubishi D703i, NEC N703iD (same design as N702iD), N703iu, Panasonic P703i, P703iu, Sharp SH703i, SonyEricsson SO703i. We’ll keep you guys posted once they’re officially announced. — Sam Chan
