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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Softbank Mobile'

Japanese cellular carrier DoCoMo loses 1.83 mln subscribers

  • December 8th, 2008
  • 9:50 am

Japan’s NTT DOCOMO has lost more than 1.83 million subscribers to other cellular carriers on a net basis since the introduction of number portability in October 2006, but November figures released Friday show defections shrinking to 1,100 cases from 13,300 in October. SOFTBANK MOBILE CORP. logged a net gain of 13,800 subscribers from those who carried their numbers from other carriers, with EMOBILE LTD. attracting 500 more subscribers than it lost.

  • KDDI CORP. suffered its first consecutive monthly net drain, losing 13,200 subscribers.
  • In addition to the introduction of new handsets, the general decline in subscriber changeovers appears to have contributed to DoCoMo’s smallest drain since number portability became available.

For more information, please visit www.nttdocomo.com

Softbank joins Symbian group (Japan)

  • November 27th, 2008
  • 7:10 am

Softbank Mobile, Japanese mobile operator joins Symbian Foundation. ‘SoftBank Mobile welcomes plans for the Symbian Foundation, We believe its activities will establish a leading open platform for mobile. Participating in the work of the Symbian Foundation and adopting the platform will enable us to concentrate resources to deliver more appealing devices more quickly to a worldwide market. We are convinced that this mobile platform will accelerate innovation in the mobile industry and increase customer satisfaction, ’said, Softbank Mobile Senior Vice-President Masanobu Yoshida.

Softbank signs up 118,400 new subscribers (Japan)

  • November 11th, 2008
  • 6:46 am

Softbank Mobile, bags third position in the mobile market of Japan, by adding more net subscribers than its rivals in October for the 18th month in succession. The operator adds a net 118,400 new subscribers in October whereas number four player eMobile, gained 102,500 net new subscribers attributed to its wireless data cards that are being sold with low-end laptops such as Asustek Computer’s Eee PC. eMobile also posted solid sales of the recently launched Touch Diamond smartphone manufactured by HTC Corp- a device which is considered as rival to Apple’s iPhone 3G. NTT DoCoMo and KDDI Corp, trailed behind Softbank and eMobile in terms of net addition of new subscribers. In this period, NTT adds 32,700 and 46,700 subscribers fall in KDDI’s kitty.

Softbank Mobile adds 142,800 new subscribers (Japan)

  • October 7th, 2008
  • 12:51 pm

Softbank Mobile, Japan’s largest mobile operator, adds new subscribers more than it’s rivals for the 17th consecutive month. Softbank provides it’s subscribers with low call rates and agressively running marketing campaigns and also brings in Apple iPhone. The mobile operator added 142,800 new subscribers for the month of September, lagging behind were NTT DoCoMo with 129,700 net additions, and second placed KDDI, which added 74,900. Japan’s number four operator eMobile added 59,300.

   

Softbank Mobile and Apple sign the first major corporate deal for iPhone 3G (Japan)

  • October 6th, 2008
  • 8:18 am

Japan’s mobile operator Softbank Mobile signs the first major corporate deal for iPhone 3G. Under the following contract, nearly 1000 phones will be given to BearingPoint’s analysts and workers across the nation.
According to BearingPoint usage of iPhone is aimed towards improving the productivity of consultants and helping them access information more conviniently.
Use of the iPhone by BearingPoint may let the Japanese companies to consider the handset alongside more business-orientated models like those from Blackberry or running Windows Mobile.

   

Softbank signs up 163,300 new subscribers (Japan)

  • September 5th, 2008
  • 1:41 pm

Softbank Mobile added a net new 163,300 customers last month. The same month iPhone was launched. According to a database, Softbank Mobile ended August with a total of 19.490 million, ahead of market leader NTT DoCoMo which added a net 84,400 users to raise its total to close to 53.807 million. Second placed KDDI gained 54,900 subscribers on a net basis to end August with 30.376 million subscribers, while number four operator eMobile added 84,300 for a total of 752,400.

   

Softbank Mobile signs the HSPA deal with Ericsson (Japan)

  • July 21st, 2008
  • 1:45 pm

Japanese cellular operator Softbank Mobile has signed a frame agreement with Ericsson of Sweden for expanding and upgrading its wireless networks in the country. Under the deal, the vendor will supply Softbank with enhanced High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) equipment on new and existing base stations in high traffic density areas of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

   

Alcatel-Lucent to Collaborate with Softbank Mobile on Demonstrations of High-Speed Wireless In-Building Solutions in Japan

  • July 9th, 2007
  • 9:14 am

Alcatel-Lucent is collaborating with Japanese service provider Softbank Mobile on a series of demonstrations of its 3G wireless in-building solutions in Japan. The technology demonstrations are designed to highlight the benefits of home base stations and feature Alcatel-Lucent’s Femto Base Station Router (BSR), an innovative solution that packs W-CDMA/HSPA radio access and core network elements into one compact, easy-to-deploy unit.

These demonstrations are a key element in efforts to deliver high-speed mobile voice and data services to Softbank’s customers in their homes and business locations.

The range of demonstrations Alcatel-Lucent is conducting with Softbank include the completion of circuit-switched voice calls and the delivery of high-speed data services using Softbank handsets, and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology using laptops equipped with HSDPA PC cards.

“These successful demonstrations represent a big step forward for Alcatel-Lucent in establishing itself as a leader in the delivery of in-building wireless solutions,” said Frederic Rose, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Asia-Pacific. “Alcatel-Lucent’s Femto BSR offers an ideal way for service providers¡ªsuch as Softbank Mobile¡ªto deliver broadband wireless services in a home or small office more efficiently than a traditional cellular network could.”

Based on Alcatel-Lucent’s revolutionary “flat IP” architecture, the Femto BSR integrates the W-CDMA Node B and packet core network elements, including the radio network controller, into a single, compact box. This technique reduces the number of network elements and related “layers” that network traffic has to travel through, eliminating bottlenecks in the network and thereby increasing data throughput and lowering latency. Additionally, this approach enables operators to deploy and optimize smaller, stand-alone base stations that register themselves on the network, making them easier for the service provider to manage, even in large numbers.

In addition to the savings in cost and space, the Femto BSR offers exceptional flexibility, enabling operators to support a variety of deployment scenarios; the Femto BSR can be offered with integrated radio network controller (RNC) functionality, router functionality or both, depending on the needs of the operator and the network architecture they have in place.

 

   
 

Softbank Mobile, KDDI add more users than DoCoMo in June

  • July 7th, 2007
  • 10:07 am

Japan’s third largest wireless carrier by subscribers, Softbank Corp-backed Softbank Mobile, added 204,800 net new users in June to end the month with 16.4 million customers, largely thanks to its focus on offering cheaper service plans. The company’s wealthy CEO Masayoshi Son has traded off Softbank’s profit margin against subscriber acquisition costs to expand its mobile user base in Japan’s nearly JPY9 trillion (USD72 billion) wireless market. As part of its plans to play catch-up with DoCoMo and KDDI, the operator has introduced a monthly call plan costing just JPY980 (USD7.99). Bloomberg notes that Softbank Mobile is enticing niche customers such as older people, the youth segment and those who need a second, cheaper contract, although local industry watchers are concerned that such a strategy might not provide the economic returns that Softbank is looking for, not least because these customers place fewer actual calls.

Second placed KDDI Corp gained a net 207,700 mobile phone users in June to end the month with 28.11 million users, including 27.56 million CDMA 1x users (+222,000). By contrast, market leader DoCoMo added only 88,800 net new subscribers in the period, to lift its total to 52.8 million. Meanwhile PHS operator Willcom gained 22,000 customers in June and had 4.65 million subscribers at the start of this month.

 

   
 

Will the iPhone support Microsoft Exchange?

  • July 4th, 2007
  • 12:49 pm

The last time this question was asked, it surrounded a quote in the Wall Street Journal given during Walt Mossberg’s review of the device. The review had a single quote about Exchange support if there was a setting allowed by the IT department. This is true because the iPhone supports IMAP email and Microsoft Exchange has a setting that will allow IMAP to function on an Exchange server. The issue that many took, with the press announcements after that review, was that the stories started to get really hyped up because at no time did the review or Apple announce Exchange support.

Apple said in many interviews about the iPhone that there would be a move to support business in the future. It appears that the future is sooner than many first thought, as soon as the third quarter of 2007; IT departments might start allowing the iPhone on the network. Why will this happen? Because of a little publicized news release from Visto over the weekend.

Visto enables email for the mass market, targeting enterprises, small businesses mobile professionals and consumers. The company’s patented Visto Mobile platform with ConstantSync technology works in real time with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Domino email platforms “Visto’s customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile operators worldwide including Elisa, Rogers Wireless, Qtel,   SmarTone, SFR, Softbank Mobile, Sprint-NEXTEL, TELUS, Turkcell and the Vodafone Group,” the company said.

On Friday, Visto announced that they would offer the same level of services and support to Apple and by proxy their iPhone customers. Through Visto, iPhone users will experience secure mobile access to current and legacy versions of both Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino corporate messaging platforms. Visto said that their mobile platform would enable access that is easy to implement and administer and will alleviate IT concerns regarding security and reliability.

“The iPhone and other devices to follow will continue to accelerate demand for secure mobile access to corporate data including email, contacts, calendar and other important information sources,” said Brian Bogosian, CEO of Visto. “To be useful to business users, it must easily and securely provide access to corporate email - and that’s where Visto adds value and functionality for end users as they consider the iPhone over BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices as their single converged device to support both their personal and business needs.”

Visto Mobile will directly offer secure and easy-to-use mobile access to corporate and personal email for the iPhone in the United States. Additionally, Visto Mobile offers iPhone users peace of mind by securing their personal information using end-to-end security. For IT departments, this means that they can encrypt and   protect sensitive corporate data without making any changes to their existing security infrastructure.

Visto Mobile for the iPhone will be available in late Q3 2007. iPhone users will be able to take advantage of a free sixty-day trial of the Visto Mobile service.