7 Jan 04

Japan's DoCoMo says that it plans to invest in manufacturers of 3G handsets to encourage early development of evermore sophisticated 3G handsets in terms of native applications and functionality.

DoCoMo particularly hopes to accelerate the evolution of state-of-the-art 3G technologies in the areas of handset application software running on advanced OS platforms (Linux and Symbian) and HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) technology. HSDPA will enable much faster data transmission via the W-CDMA network.

Under the terms of investment, DoCoMo will share ownership rights with the manufacturer for any new handset technology thereby smoothing the way for more efficient research and development in the future.
 

DoCoMo will provide a total of about US$344 million over two years (fiscal 2004 and fiscal 2005) to Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola Japan., NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Sharp.
 

DoCoMo will continue to upgrade the service by introducing various technologies including HSDPA, which is expected to be launched within 2005.