RE: UKNM: WAP (long)

[Marcus Exall]

I'm sorry that I have to announce a further delay to the i-mode get-together

as our man has had to cancel his European trip until December time.  I

apologise for the delay but will post a date and location as soon as I have

heard.


In the meantime - Gary sent me this info on the mobile telecoms market in

Japan as background.


Regards


Marcus



NTT DoCoMo

To ensure fair competitive conditions, the mobile communications division

was separated from NTT in July 1992, and divided in to regional companies in

July 1993.


On June 13, 1997, the bill for the NTT breakup (or reorganization) was

finally approved by the Diet, bringing the 15-year discussion to an end.

Except for DoCoMo, which is the only operator with a full nationwide

network, all cellular operators are servicing their subscribers under

roaming agreements. Although NTT is being divided it will still operate

under a holding company, making it difficult to ensure that the local

entities dont favour their liberated cousins over their competitors.



i mode


DoCoMo launched its I-mode services in late Feb99 forecasting that the

service would be a major driving force for E-commerce Internet businesses.

The I-Mode service was included in an existing packet data communication

service set up by DoCoMo in 1997 known as DoPa. DoPa, standing for DoCoMo

Packet required the use of a specially adapted handset and offered a maximum

of downlink and uplink speeds on the DoPa network of 28.8 kps. With packet

transmission being too busy for the targeted business market as well as

handsets being considered too expensive and heavy, DoPa failed to make

strides in the market. With the inclusion of the I-Mode service the DoPa

network has received a new lease of life. The difference this time is that

the service is cheaper, the target market is consumer, the packet content is

mainly text base and the battery life is longer. Transmission speeds however

have been slowed down to a 9600bps transmission system. The biggest

difference is that I-Mode in its short life has been very successful. cHTML

on I-Mode has become the de facto standard in Japan as opposed to actual

decided standards such as WAP and WML with figures for mobile subscribers

closing in on the 6 million mark. Where WAP requires the user to

substantially modify content from that currently used for the Internet , the

I-Mode server uses HTML/HTTP format. There also are issues to be resolved

over royalties on WAP, whereas DoCoMo have the proprietary rights to I-Mode.


As I-Mode is based on a packet-data transmission system, subscribers are

charged according to the volume of data transmitted, not the time spent on

line


On top of this DoCoMo have announced that all future handsets will be I-Mode

enabled and it is expected that other carriers will follow suit to cash in

on the incremental revenue opportunities. I-Mode with first mover advantage

seems likely to become at least the prevailing Japanese standard. So much

so, that rumours are abounding that the next version of WAP 2.0 will

incorporate the I-Mode standard.


PHS (Personal Handy Phone)


Personal Handy Phone System (Digital Cordless Telephone) The forerunner to

PHS was the Digital Cordless Telephone which can be used both inside and

outside buildings. In Japan it is also called the Personal Handy Phone

System (PHS).


PHS services for practical use began in July 1995 and for a while the

cellular market had entered uncertain times. When PHS was introduced in July

1995 it was as a service to compete with the existing cellular phone

service. The PHS market in FY96 was an anomaly to the history of consumer

product launches. A 300% year on year subscriber growth rate, yielding over

6 million subscribers was at the time a resounding success story. With such

abundant consumer demand, the early years of PHS became a marketing frenzy

as carriers literally gave away handsets to capture market share.


By 1997 it was seen as a product aimed at the low-income market which

contributed to the penetration of Mobile subscribers, of which DDI Pocket

had nearly half of the market. The PHS had left its mark in consumer

electronics product history having reached the 1 million and 2 million unit

sales mark faster (eight and ten months, respectively) than any other

previous product in this category.


To match this in June 1995, all the cellular phone service providers reduced

connection charges in order to counter the PHS service, the fee was set at

about double the PHS connection charge. Aided by the perception of a limited

service area the effect of the PHS on new cellular phone subscribers

returned to its earlier pace. The number of new units rose by 423,700 units,

a record high net increase, in June 1995 when connection charges were

reduced. The monthly net increase passed 400,000 units for the first time.


However, PHS had two major drawbacks compared with cellular services:

mobility limitations and weak in-building coverage. This in addition to the

fact that competition in the cellular market drove down costs so that the

PHS was no longer considered the cheap option meant that PHS suffered

negative results in the following years and has only recently picked up

proving its resilience as a viable alternative to the cellular phone. With

data transmission speeds of up to 64kbps on the downlink and uplink the

benefits for data usage are more pronounced than the more expensive cdmaOne

data service of 64kbps on the downlink and 14.4kbps on the uplink. However,

there are to my knowledge no PHS handsets on offer at the moment with

English display.


CdmaOne and PDC upgrading


In July 1998, DDI launched cdmaOne services in Kansai, Kyushu and Okinawa

with IDO launching their services in April of 1999. "cdmaOne" is a

completely new digital telecommunications technology based on CDMA (Code

Division Multiple Access), a technology developed in the U.S by Qualcomm..

It offers outstanding voice and high-speed data transmission capabilities.


With the launch of cdmaOne , PDC operators such as J-Phone and DoCoMo whose

PDC products voice standards became subject to comparisons with the cdmaOne

handsets realised that their half-rate service did not fare well.

Improvements have been made therefore to upgrade the half-rate service using

new Codec, and recent months have seen the launch of Enhanced Full.


W-CDMA


DoCoMo plans to launch W-CDMA services in mid-2001

The W-CDMA Network will have the ability to handle all types of

high-capacity mobile computing packet data transmission. In addition it will

have the ability to handle transmission control protocol/Internet protocol

(TCP/IP) the key networking protocols for interconnecting diverse computer

platforms. In the future, W-CDMA users could have a mobile IP number as well

as the traditional mobile telephone number.


Through W-CDMA networks, users could get direct access to Internet networks

from mobile terminals which is -likely to become the de facto

third-generation standard for many operators in Asia. DoCoMo are also

planning a dual mode PHS/cellular telephone service enabled for the I-Mode

service.





-----Original Message-----

From:

ownerchinwag [dot] com

 [

ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On

 Behalf Of Marcus

Exall

Sent: 23 October 2000 17:31

To:

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

Subject: RE: UKNM: WAP




For those of you that replied regarding the i-mode and beer evening, I hope

to send out a date by this Thursday.


Sorry to keep you waiting - our man has been forced to change his travel

arrangements at the last moment.


Kind regards


Marcus

www.advertwizard.com


-----Original Message-----

From:

ownerchinwag [dot] com

 [

ownerchinwag [dot] com]On">mailto:ownerchinwag [dot] com]On

 Behalf Of Emily

Dubberley

Sent: 04 October 2000 17:38

To:

uknmchinwag [dot] com

Subject: RE: UKNM: WAP



talking i-mode with someone who's got real experience of it sounds like it

could be good - count me in


-----Original Message-----

From: Marcus Exall [

marcus [dot] exalladvertwizard [dot] com (mailto:marcus [dot] exalladvertwizard [dot] com)

]

Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 10:59 AM

To:

uk-netmarketingchinwag [dot] com

Subject: RE: UKNM: WAP


Despite the success of i-mode in Japan, my friends in Tokyo informs me that

WAP is actually a far better protocol for development of the mobile

internet.  The reason that i-mode has been successful is not the technology

but the marketing by NTT DoCoMo.  The think that WAP seems to be missing at

the moment is the delivery platform and decent handsets.


Anybody else got info on the 'let's not write WAP off just yet side of

things'?


On of one my friends who develops i-mode sites will be coming to the UK

sometime in November.  If there is interest from the list I will ask him if

he will lend us the benefit of his experience over a beer.  Any takers?


Regards


Marcus Exall


[Sam says: msg chopped]



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know where the new economy is heading? Become a part of it.

   For all the best jobs in E-Commerce, IT, and New media,

  come to RevolutionVisit at London Olympia 2, 24/25 November.


     See http://www.revolutionvisit.com/1 to find out more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com