IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | The launch will mark the first commercial WiMAX service in Japan. |
Implications | UQ Communications aims to “facilitate an open network usage environment” to promote the commercialisation of WiMAX. |
Outlook | Several device makers will release branded WiMAX-enabled retail devices in July while UQ Communications will lease related infrastructure to MVNOs. The new services, however, will face intense competition in the advanced Japanese wireless broadband market. |
UQ Communications has said that next month it will launch a commercial mobile broadband service based on the WiMAX technology which will deliver a maximum data download speed of 40 megabits per second, the Nikkei business daily reports. The service will be called "UQ WiMAX". The commercial launch follows the free trial WiMAX service the company has been providing customers since 26 February of this year. With commercial service on track to start on 1 July, UQ Communications will expand WiMAX service areas around metropolitan Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nagoya. The company plans to charge ¥4,480 (US$45.6) a month for unlimited Internet access. Starting in October, the company aims to introduce a plan which will allow 24-hour unlimited Internet access for ¥600. User accounts can be set up online.
UQ Communications, a joint venture backed by the likes of KDDI, Intel, handset and components maker Kyocera, and East Japan Railway, is Japan’s only national WiMAX licensee (see Japan: 8 June 2009: Intel Capital Invests US$43 mil. in WiMAX Provider UQ Communications and Japan: 21 December 2007: Government in Japan to Award New Wireless Licences to Willcom and KDDI). When receiving the licence, the group planned to spend ¥144 billion through fiscal 2013 on building a network. The new network will enable high-speed wireless Internet services, such as multimedia content download, even when the users are on the move, such as in trains or cars.
Outlook and Implications
"In keeping with our continuous effort to facilitate an open network usage environment, several device makers will release branded WiMAX-enabled retail devices in July, while mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) will launch new services over the WIMAX network,” said UQ Communications in a company statement.
At the company's news conference in Tokyo yesterday (8 June), executives from 13 Japanese and foreign personal computer makers, including NEC, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, and Fujitsu, disclosed plans to start selling WiMAX-compatible PCs as early as in July, with high-performance models likely dominating the first wave of product releases. The technology is expected to eventually be used also in video cameras and portable game consoles.
In addition to offering its own brand of WiMAX service, UQ Communications will lease related infrastructure to other firms. Already three companies—major consumer electronics discount retailers Bic Camera Inc. and Yamada Denki Co., as well as Daiwabo Information System Co., a subsidiary of textile maker Daiwabo Co.—have decided to offer WiMAX services using UQ Communications' circuits, according to Nikkei. By teaming up with non-telecom service firms, UQ Communications hopes to create a broad customer base, signing up several hundred thousand customers by 31 March 2010 and some five million users by 31 March 2013.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how much success the new WiMAX service will achieve in the highly competitive Japanese wireless mobile market, which is currently dominated by services provided over mobile operators’ 3G/3.5G networks. The country’s three mobile operators—NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and Softbank Mobile—have also started conducting long-term evolution (LTE) trials, with DoCoMo expected to first launch a commercial service, as early as next year. Personal handyphone system (PHS) operator Willcom is also preparing for a launch in October of a next-generation PHS mobile data communications service 25 times faster than its existing offering (see Japan: 24 April 2009: Willcom to Launch Next-Generation PHS Service in October). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is preparing to issue five new licences—four for 1.5-GHz and 1.7-GHz LTE and another for TDD in the 2-GHz range.