TOKYO-DDI Pocket Telephone Group, the leading PHS carrier with 60 percent of the market share, on 30 July launched 64 kilobits per second (kbps) data transmission service. At the same time, it began offering a new series of PHS terminals, called Edge, for receiving the new 64 kbps service.
The 64 kbps service is being provided using two 32 kbps lines. When a user cannot get two lines due to traffic congestion or one of the two lines is cut off suddenly, the call will be continued using the second line at 32 kbps speed. When the other line becomes available, the speed will be doubled to 64 kbps.
NTT DoCoMo has been providing a similar 64 kbps data service in and around urban areas since April.
Meanwhile, the governmental Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) in May announced it successfully developed a PHS system that transmits data at a speed of 384 kbps.
Separately, DDI Cellular Group and IDO are scheduled to launch 64 kbps data transmission service for their cdmaOne users in December.
