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MillimeterMobile Phone Firms Link for New High-Speed Standard
Jan 3, 2005 2:28 PM
TOKYO (Reuters) - Leading wireless carriers and telecoms equipment makers have agreed to develop an advanced mobile phone standard capable of sending high-resolution video in an instant, according to Japan's NTT DoCoMo.
A group of 26 companies, including Britain's Vodafone Group Plc, Germany's Siemens AG, France's Alcatel, Japan's NEC Corp. and DoCoMo, will support the standard, Japan's top wireless operator said.
Mobile phone services based on the technology will offer transmission speeds more than 10 times as fast as the current third-generation (3G) service, DoCoMo said.
Basic technological specifications will be compiled by 2007 but no date has been set for a commercial launch, a DoCoMo spokesman said.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said, however, DoCoMo aims to offer the high-speed service as early as 2009.
The operator is likely to invest more than 100 billion yen ($963.6 million) to upgrade its telecoms infrastructure for the launch, the newspaper said.
The unified standard is expected to create demand for cellphones with a large liquid crystal displays for playing games and watching movies, and to help handset makers cut costs through mass production, the paper said.
DoCoMo wants to lower procurement costs for cellphones because its revenues have been capped by the introduction of flat-rate services and fierce competition.
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