WiMAX coalitions submit applications

over the past month, the various players looking to compete for a license to operate WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) services in the 2.5GHz spectrum have come together to put forward their proposals and submit their applications.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will award two licenses and have set restrictions such as carriers that already have lincenses for 3G services can only apply as part of a joint venture in which they can only invest up to one third of the capital.

in the end 4 companies applied. they were Wilcom (it currently doesn't operate 3G) and the three joint ventures sumarised in the table below.

Open Wireless Network	Wireless Broadband Planning	Acca Wireless
e acces	KDDI (au's parent company)	Acca Networks
SoftBank	Intel Capital	NTT DoCoMo
Goldman Sachs	JR East	JP Morgan Securities
Temasek Holdings	Kyocera	Ignite Group
Various ISPs	Daiwa Securities	Doll Capital Management
	Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ Bank	iTec Hankyu Hanshin
		Keihin Electric Express Railway
		Various ISPs

a decision on which 2 companies are granted licenses is expected within the year.

au - choice of cheap calls or cheap handsets

anyone who has bought a mobile in Japan will have realised, but handsets here are very cheap. this is because the main carriers offer huge discounts (or subsidies) to the retailers, with the aim that cheaper handsets will bring in more customers to the network. that all sounds rather appealing, but then comes the other side to this phenomenon - the networks make all their money back with expensive contracts and call rates.

this is nothing new to Japan and has been continuing for ever. however, last year the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications finally told the networks that they would have to fix this system. the problem lies in the fact that with the system up until now, people that don't change their handsets so often lose out. that is, they benifit less often from the handset subsidy and still continue to pay the more expensive fees. on the other hand, others (like myself) change models often and enjoy new cheap new handsets each year.

the networks were told that they had until fiscal 2008 to correct this wrong. SoftBank already responded way back by totally revolutionising the way their customers pay for handsets by asking nothing up-front but adding installment payments to the bill each month. au then recently announced a new system called 'au kaikata select' in which consumers have the choice of two plans when buying or changing their handsets.

the first is 'full support course', which basically sticks with the current system. it keeps the handset subsidy (reportly 21,000 yen) , keeps the current discount plans, improves the au point system (which you use for discount off your next phone) and finally offers a full after sales and repair service. the other new 'simple course' loses the handset subsidy and loses the point system, but introduces new monthly plans with some of the cheapest call rates currently available.

DoCoMo are yet to release details, but it is suspected that they will reduce call rates by 30% while hiking handset prices. it will be interesting to see if they also offer the choice between the conventional system and the new prices. DoCoMo handsets have always been more expensive anyway.

CEATEC JAPAN 2007

CEATEC JAPAN 2007 was held at the start of the month. as the names origin (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies - Providing Image, Information and Communications) suggests, the exhibition is not only for the mobile industry, but is always a major platform for the carriers and also manufacturers to show off their latest gadgets. however as new lineups are expected soon from the 3 main carriers, it was more the case of various technologies rather than specific models.DoCoMo introduced a 'wellness keitai' (top photo) that among other things, measures your body fat level, tells you how many calories you used and even checks that you don't have bad breath. they were also demonstrating 'super 3G', had a recycle corner (above photo) where you could swap your old mobile for some docomo dake goods and even introduced docomo dake DS, a nintendo DS game based on the popular mushroom characters. (below photo)
au had most of their models on display as well as the upcoming INFOBAR2 (below photo) which is to be round 7 in the 'au design project'. they also promoted their newly consolidated portal site 'au one' and announced a new home DVD burning service, through which you download the DVD from au's servers and burn it yourself to watch when you like. you can check the site out at www.dvd-burn.jp. the most recognisable name on board is Warner Brothers, but there is a lot of Japanese contents also.

INFOBAR makes a comeback

INFOBAR was a concept model designed by Fukasawa Naoto. it first appeared in May of 2001 and in October of 2003 was released as the first ever model in the 'au design project' series of concept mobiles. 4 years have passed since then, and as the follow up to MEDIA SKIN, the 6th installment of the series, INFOBAR2 will go on sale at the end of November.INFOBAR2 first appeared as a concept model exactly one year ago, however at the press conference, au emphasized that this is the first phone to go into production with no changes from the concept model. back in the times of the first INFOBAR, the phone was altered before going into production, for example, with the addition of an external aerial. it also lacked many basic functions like an external memory card slot.
however this time round, Sanyo have managed to fit in 1-seg tv, 2.6 EL display, mobile wallet (Felica), and a 1.97 megapixel camera. it is also the first au 1-seg phone with no external aerial. as you can see above, it comes in 4 colours of silver, midori (green), nishikigoi and warm gray.

nanaco keitai campaign

SoftBank and Seven & i Holdings have today started a campaign to coincide with the launch of the nanaco e-money service on SoftBank handsets. (see nanano mobile starts SoftBank service)

for people that register for the nanaco service (mobile or card version) and spend over 3000 yen between now and the end of October, they will be entered into a draw for 100 limited edition 'nanaco keitai' version of SoftBanks fanfun 815T by Toshiba. also during the same time period, 10,000 lucky people registering for the nanaco mobile service on their SoftBank phones will win 500 nanaco points.

kind of unrelated, but I really think Seven & i Holdings' 'semi-rebranding' of seven-eleven, Denny's, Ito-Yokado etc. was a stupid move.