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Emobile to trial LTE in Japan
(07 Oct 2008, BWCS Staff)Newcomer to the Japanese mobile market, Emobile is seeking a trial LTE licence from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The MVNO plans to hold a field trial from late December this year until the end of May 2009 in the Shimbashi area of the Minato ward in Tokyo. The company says it aims to adopt LTE during the first half of 2011.
In February of this year, KDDI founder, Sachio Semmoto, announced his plans to launch Emobile. The MVNO features no monthly subscription charges and was the first new entrant to the already saturated Japanese mobile market for many years. Emobile, which actually launched at the end of March, offers users unlimited calling packages for Yen980 a month - matching offers from rival Softbank.
Competition in the Japanese mobile market has intensified since Softbank cut its call prices and monthly charges late last year. KDDI Corp, Japan's second- largest operator, countered with a package that doesn't charge for calls between family members.
Emobile is initially using market leader NTT DoCoMo's network, with handsets supplied by Tokyo company Toshiba and High Tech Computer Corp of Taiwan. The MVNO, which started providing wireless Web access in 2007, said it is building a nationwide network that should be ready for use by October 2010, when its roaming agreement with DoCoMo expires.
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