TOKYO-DDI Cellular Group is set to kick off its cdmaOne IS-95 service in mid-July in western Japan. The service gradually will spread across the nation. Once IDO Corp. kicks off the same service next year, the service will become nationwide. IDO offers cellular in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Chubu region.
The two cellular groups decided to employ cdmaOne to challenge the NTT DoCoMo Group, which has been working to develop a wideband CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) solution for next-generation cellular based on the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) platform. The NTT subsidiary has 57 percent overall market share in Japan. In the Tokyo area, the share climbs to 67 percent.
Currently, all of the Japanese digital cellular phones employ the PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) system. Because the PDC system was developed by NTT DoCoMo and the firm occupied all the key technology for PDC, DoCoMo has been in an advantageous position: When a manufacturer has brought a new terminal to market, it provided terminals to DoCoMo first. Other carriers were forced to wait for several months before the same manufacturer provided the new terminals to them.
“We have had (a) hard time because we chose PDC,” said Mamoru Mishina, DDI spokesperson. “That’s why we decided not to choose W-CDMA for our next-generation cellular system because if we choose that system, we will have the same bad experience.”
DDI’s cdmaOne service is scheduled to start 14 July in three regions: Kansai, Kyushu and Okinawa. The service will spread to Chugoku and Hokuriku in December, Shikoku in February, and Tohoku and Hokkaido next April. IDO will start in April 1999 its services to Tokyo and Chubu.
Until the service covers the whole country, DDI will provide dual-mode terminals that can be used for both cdmaOne and TACS. Currently, DDI and IDO analog users can enjoy nationwide services because the two firms have a roaming arrangement. And until April 1999, DDI’s cdmaOne users who have the dual-mode terminals can get nationwide services by using TACS in the areas unserved by cdmaOne.
Although the majority of DDI cellular subscribers use digital services, 15 percent still use analog, which employs Motorola Inc.’s TACS system. DDI is planning to replace its analog service with the cdmaOne.
Both DDI and IDO say their
cdmaOne service will have better voice quality and higher data transmission speeds than the current PDC system. When a prototype cdmaOne handset was presented at the Tokyo Business Show in May, about 75 percent of respondents said voice quality with cdmaOne is the same or better than with traditional wired phones. The data transmission speed initially will be 14.4 kilobits per second, accelerated to 64 kbps by year-end 1999.
However, DoCoMo is planning to introduce W-CDMA, which advocates say will have 2 Megabits per second data transmission speed, at the beginning of 2001.
However, Mishina is not pessimistic: “In other words, we can provide higher quality service based on CDMA technology to our customers three years ahead of DoCoMo.”
DDI and IDO have launched a joint experiment for Wideband cdmaOne, the next-generation cellular system based on IS-95. They have asked Fujitsu, Motorola Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and NEC Corp. to develop prototype terminals and systems by March 1999. Then DDI and IDO will launch a field test in the Tokyo area using an IDO’s switch. An office for the experiment has been constructed at DDI’s facilities.
DDI said it expects 750,000 cdmaOne subscribers by the end of next March. DDI and IDO will invest a total of 700 billion yen (US$50.9 million) for the new service.
