TOKYO-Japan’s three mobile operators all announced multimedia-related activities today, which will likely further boost third-generation (3G) uptake in the highly competitive market.
Market leader NTT DoCoMo said it will launch its M-stage V-Live video streaming service for FOMA customers beginning 1 May. The carrier said the 3G service would allow one-to-many video streaming, enabling customers to download or stream live or archived content via a 64 kilobits per second (kbps) circuit-switched wireless transmission.
Both “open” content, which is free except for data transmission, and “closed member channel” content, which is available only to customers of content providers or corporate users through the infogate portal site, is available.
KDDI, which operates a CDMA 1x service, said it will begin sales of the Movie Mail-compatible A5305K handset in mid-May. The Kyocera handset allows users to shoot and send seamless movies. The handset is the seventh Movie Mail handset available from KDDI.
Finally, J-Phone, which offers a W-CDMA-based service, launched the J-SH53 camera phone from Sharp, which is capable of photographing 1 million pixels for high-quality pictures. The handset, which will go on sale in late May, is compatible with J-Phone’s Movie Sha-mail video messaging service.
