A Journey to the Levant
Israeli Start-up Altair Semiconductors has just released that Altair’s chipsets are used in Japanese Willcom Core XGP 4G network.
Asiajin has more details on Willcom plans for deployment, which signals Willcom major move into the 4G network and data services.
As previously reported, Altair has previously announced their plans to support Willcom, which results in a $22 Millions series C funding.
UQ Communications has announced they will use new devices, the OKI USB device and WiFi combination.
Sound like a good idea, carry a USB device around to access the Wireless Broadband network, and when you arrive at home, plug it into the router and provide Internet access to different devices over WiFi.
What I don’t understand is:
UQ Communications provided a press kit which includes the manuals and some wonderful images (attached below):
Nikkei reports on a new Alliance, the OESF (Open Embedded Software Foundation), to promote the usage of Android for Embedded devices of different kinds, from mobile phone to STB (SetTop Boxes), point of sale terminals and more.
The group consists of a long list of companies, among them: ARM, Fujitsu, Maxxon (for the complete list see here and here).
This is another important step for Android in Japan, as reported earlier in Asiajin , Fujitsu has already started offering Android related consulting services.
During the press conference, atmark , has demonstrated an atmark touch panel device running Android. (photo)
Think about Packing Material (Plastic bag filled with air), think about a good marketing name for it. What do you come up with?
Surprisingly enough, a Japanese company came up with the name “Boy Pad” (while originally in Japanese it is Boy Pat – ボーイパット).
The “Boy Pad” may serve more than one purpose. Once you are done packing and have a few plastic bags lying around, you can always pad your pants to attract attention.
Softbank Mobile will start LTE trial in Mito City (Ibaraki Perfecture). Trial license is from Feb. 17 to Dec. 31 2009.
This is the first LTE field trial in Japan, and an important step for LTE internationally. It is not reported which vendors participate in the trial.
As I reported in UQ Communications Data Cards and Chip Vendors , UQ Communications UD01SS is actually Korean Modacom‘s device, using GCT Semi chipset.
None of UQ Communications devices support MAC OS or Linux, which caused discontent in the Japanese technical community (Early Adopters and Apple Fans).
But when checking Modacom website for similar WiBRO devices, they do support MAC OS, which makes me think Shinsei Corporation or UQ Communications didn’t want to deal with the complexity of supporting Operating Systems other than Windows (XP, Vista) at this time.
OKI, a Japanese Company apparently develop WiMAX systems.
Why “apparently”?
It does seem OKI have certified a USB device, but trying to understand their Product Portfolio can be a “bit” difficult.
OKI’s English WiMAX Page:
Now, one would say OKI do not plan to market their WiMAX Products outside Japan.
The Japanese page is not much better:
In a previous post, I have reviewed the data cards and Chipsets used by UQ WiMAX trial. UQ and Japanese companies in general usually insist on certification. Therefore, I decided to check the certification status of the data cards.
NEC Access Technica certified both the PCMCIA card and USB in January.
As for Shinsei Corp, there is no certification as they rely on Modacom (the actual Korean manufacturer of the devices) . Modacom has also certified both the Express Card, and the USB.
Confusing a bit, is the fact that the Modacom Express Card Certification page shows a USB device. Someone has mixed up the images:
Published in Israeli The Marker [HE]: Israeli Start-Up Siano ‘s chip SMS1130 is powering Softabank Mobile’s 1seg (Japanese： ワンセグ) iPhone adapter.
This iPhone adapter is both a 1seg (ISDB-T) TV Tuner and a battery pack, on sale for 9,840 ¥.
Apple iPhone’s lacked this important feature, which is now a standard in most Japanese cellular phones. About 100$ is a bit expensive in my opinion, but I am not watching TV anyway.
UQ Communications business model has always been about MVNOs.
As UQ WiMAX trial beginns and deployment details start to unfold, MVNOs start to line-up.