Japan’s No. 1 mobile carrier testing faster networkNTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone carrier, said Friday in a press release that it had started testing equipment it thinks will yield download speeds of up to 300 megabits per second — nearly 100 times faster than its current cellular network.
Completion of the new network is scheduled by 2009.
Competition in Japan’s saturated mobile communications market has been driving down margins for voice services, and DoCoMo and its rival carriers are trying to capture more business by turning to data-based services, which require more bandwidth.
DoCoMo also said it would restart sales of a mobile handset made by Sony Ericsson that it had stopped because of software problems.
The company said sales would restart Saturday in Tokyo and many other parts of Japan. Users who already own the phones will be able to receive software updates to correct the problems.
DoCoMo temporarily halted sales of the phone July 4 because of the glitch that could erase stored phone numbers and other data. DoCoMo said it had received 147 complaints and sold 27,000 units of the phone.
Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between Sweden’s LM Ericsson and Japan’s Sony Corp.
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