On Thursday, July 4, 2002, at 07:47 , Ken Chang wrote:
> yes, as Benjamin said, why bother to use a Japanese mobile in
> the US while it doesn't even work in Japan (in another network).
>
> Christopher, if you mean mobile phones that're made by Japanese
> manufacturers, then Sanyo is an agressive company who now supplies
> cdmaOne/2000 handsets in the US and Korea. Sprint PCS has a flap
> color Sanyo handsets (SCP-5150) for sometime and is working with
> Sanyo to implement FlashPoint's technology for imaging service.
Ken, I believe Christopher's remark was in relation to roaming services
(or the lack thereof) for Japanese subscribers. After all the topic is
"International Usage".
Before that background, the answer "why bother to use a Japanese mobile
in the US" is "because that's what you happen to have and because it is
so much hassle to get a rental phone for the few days you're in the US".
Thus, Cristopher's idea "If the phones can't work with a US network, why
not roll out a Japanese hot spot network in the US" is sound.
However, the technology you would use for that is clearly PHS, not PDC.
I stated in my earlier post that the white papers which circulated
within PHS MoU did not seem to have led to anything ... I wasn't up to
date and I apologise for the misleading remark ... Fact, is that as of
May 15, 2002, DDI Pockets and FITEL (PHS operator in Taiwan) have a
unidirectional roaming service operational for Taiwanese PHS users to
roam while visiting Japan.
http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/wcs/leaf?CID=onair/asabt/news/185744
So, PHS is now ready to do international roaming. Roaming service for
Japanese PHS users visiting Taiwan may sooner or later also be
introduced. Thailand and China could also follow.
And unlike CDMA One roaming, the PHS roaming service also allows you to
use the 64Kbit/s internet service while you roam.
As PHS has been approved in the US ...
http://www.phsmou.com/worldwide/index.html
it should be feasible and viable to roll-out PHS hot spots in the US in
areas with many Japanese tourists and also in and around buildings with
major Japanese companies. After all, PHS gear is very cheap. You could
probably deploy PHS hot spots all over Universal City or in all Vegas
casinos or all over Manhattan for the money you would spend on one
single radio tower for a cellular network.
Low cost network - high spending users who tend to cluster in specific
places. Yep, that could work and it would probably be rather profitable.
Anybody in the US who would like to give that a closer look ?
regards
benjamin
Received on Sat Jul 6 09:34:50 2002