Japan’s eAccess Ltd. said on Monday its wireless unit will borrow its bigger rival NTT DoCoMo Inc.’s network to offer a nationwide cellphone service. eAccess’ mobile unit will roam on DoCoMo’s network in areas outside the major cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The agreement will helps eAccess launch a nationwide voice service in March 2008 before completing its own network. Prior to the nationwide mobile phone service, eAccess aims to offer wireless data service in March 2007.
Source- http://www.wirelesswatch.jp
Technorati : Japan, Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, eAccess
Ice Rocket : Japan, Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, eAccess
ASIA : The 3GSM World Congress Asia - the fastest growing mobile communications event in the region - will bring together a host of industry leaders and personalities from across Asia’s booming mobile industry.
The mobile operator CEOs speaking at the 2006 event, which will be held in Singapore between October 16th and October 20th, include Sunil Mittal from Bharti Televentures, Dr Young-Chu Cho from KTF, Naguib Sawiris from Orascom, Lee Hsien Yang from SingTel Group, Dato Abdul Wahid Omar from Telekom Malaysia, Arve Johansen from Telenor, Sol Trujillo from Telstra and Alexander Izosimov from VimpelCom. Produced by the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association for the mobile industry, the 3GSM World Congress Asia will also feature top executives from other mobile-related industries, such as Alejandro Zubillaga, Executive Vice President Digital Strategy and Business Development at Warner Music Group, and Dr Sachio Semmoto, Founder and CEO of eAccess.
“For this year’s 3GSM Congress in Asia, we have assembled a top-class, yet diverse, line-up of speakers that will pinpoint the key trends in the region’s dynamic and complex market for mobile communications,” said Bill Gajda, the chief marketing officer of the GSM Association. “The Congress is the only event in Asia to attract the top ranking executives from the region’s operator community.”
The Congress presentations, revolving around the central theme of ‘Risk and Reward’, will cover topics ranging from new business models for mobile operators, to the role of China, universal access in emerging markets, the mobile boom in India, mobile virtual network operators and infotainment and content. The 2006 event will also host the GSMA Members Forum - the only annual meeting open to the entire GSMA membership.
This year’s Congress also sees the introduction of the GSMA’s “Asia Mobile Innovation Awards.” These awards are designed to support innovation in the Asian mobile industry by bringing together start-up companies, industry investors, mobile operators and vendors
Source- http://www.3g.co.uk
Technorati : 3 GSM, Asia, Bharti Televentures, China, KTF, Orascom, Singtel, Telekom Malaysia, Telenor, Telestra, Warner Music Group, eAccess, operator
Ice Rocket : 3 GSM, Asia, Bharti Televentures, China, KTF, Orascom, Singtel, Telekom Malaysia, Telenor, Telestra, eAccess, operator
The rollout of Japan’s newest W-CDMA nationwide mobile network by eMobile, the new mobile subsidiary of leading DSL wholesaler eAccess Ltd, is gathering pace and causing not a few surprises and disappointments among vendors.
eMobile announced late in July that it had selected Huawei Technologies from 15 global vendors as a second prime network vendor to work alongside Ericsson, which in March was awarded the contract for the nationwide core network and the 1.7-GHz radio network in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
Huawei will start by deploying networks in Sapporo and Sendai. This is the first contract for Huawei or any Chinese network vendor in Japan, and it means that Japanese vendors have completely lost out on this pioneering 3.5G network business worth $3 billion to $4 billion. “The choice of Huawei was an extraordinary shock to Japanese vendors,” eMobile and eAccess CEO Dr Sachio Semmoto told Wireless Asia.
Japanese vendors are not the only shocked and disappointed vendors. Lucent Technologies was passed over yet again. One year ago Lucent appeared to be in pole position with eAccess after working on apparently successful trials combining HSDPA and Lucent’s IMS. Lucent was presented as eAccess’ partner in several high profile PR social and events.
Among the reasons cited for the selection of Huawei by eAccess are its strong product development skills, quality management systems in IP technology and small base stations.
eAccess has done an impressive job of fundraising for the new venture. eMobile now has equity and debt financing totaling 363 billion yen ($3.16 billion). The companies are planning to offer seamless IP-based fixed and mobile services with data services starting in March 2007 and voice services following in Spring 2008.
Putting up a state-of-the-art nationwide mobile network, of course, is costly and eAccess will struggle to reach the 85% coverage required by the government within five years under its present business-financing plan, even though the network will be IP-based.
NTT DoCoMo spent $20 billion on its W-CDMA network and Vodafone Japan around $10 billion on its latest network. From this perspective, it is easy to understand the decision to partner with Huawei, which has risen quickly by combining advanced technology with low prices.
eMobile’s ambitious strategy contrasts sharply with IP Mobile, Japan’s other mobile start-up, which announced that it has secured just over 4 billion yen to build its network. Non-Japanese vendors have also secured a significant part of the contracts so far awarded by IP Mobile.
Source- http://www.telecomasia.net.
Technorati : Asia, Cell Phones, Ericsson, HSDPA, Huawei, Japan, Vodafone, eAccess
Ice Rocket : Asia, Cell Phones, Ericsson, HSDPA, Huawei, Japan, Vodafone, eAccess
eAccess to Borrow DoCoMo Network
