Today In The World Of 3G

 

2 heads is better than one – says Japan and South Korea.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and South Korea’s KT Freetel announced that they’re going to be working together to produce a 3G cellphone model via LG Electronics. The handset will be a part of LG’s WINE model. The phone will be sold as FOMA L706ie in Japan (August) and as a yet-to-be-announced-name in South Korea (September).

 

While we’re still awaiting a simple announcement of a 3G iPhone – Japan and S.Korea are already in the works for yet another top-of-the-line phone to add to their 3G-ready mountain of devices.

India announces 3G and WiMAX guidelines to be ready by June

Andimuthu Raja, Telecom Minister in India, announced today that the guidelines for 3G and WiMAX will be ready by June.

The actual service, however, will be ready in January 2009.

 

Raja was very, very specific in noting 2 key points of the 3G/WiMAX guidelines:

a. Foreign players will be permitted (Hello Apple iPhone 2.0!)

b. No new infrastructure will be needed, and all existing operators are ready for the 3G rollout.

(Convenient timing for this announcement…right before the WWDC..hmmm)

Good stuff India – glad to see your on board.

The price of 3G in Russia? $1.6 Billion

Russia’s largest cellphone service provider – Mobile TeleSystems (MBT.N) – has announced their plan to spend $1.6 billion on a 3G network from now until 2012.

Woah there – another 3G announcement oh so close to the WWDC – where the 3G iPhone will be probably announced.

Go figure.

 

The deputy head of Russian Mobile TeleSystems said that revenues of $2.5 billion are expected by 2011 – so the investment is worthwhile.

They plan to extend the 3G network to Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Belarus.

The race for 3G has taken 6 lives – literally.

While working on 3G cell towers 6 workers have fallen to their death – in just the past 5 weeks.

Between December 5th and April 11th – not a single cell tower death had occurred. But just in the past five weeks the rate has sky rocketed.

 

Hmm…could AT&T be pressuring workers to hurry up and finish the 3G project (hence lowering their level of carefulness) in time for the announcement of the iPhone 2.0?

AT&T is trying to avoid limiting data usage like Sprint and Verizon did (both 5 GB per month).