New competition is coming to Japan's mobile phone market, with the promise of cheaper services for its long-suffering callers. On Wednesday, the Japanese communications ministry said it would grant unused bandwidth to three new entrants -- Softbank, eAccess and a start-up, IP Mobile -- allowing them to offer wireless services as early as next year.
Hopes are high that the new carriers will shake up the nation's US$70 billion cellular market, now divided among three big carriers -- NTT DoCoMo and KDDI of Japan, and Vodafone of Britain. The decision announced on Wednesday was the first time in 11 years the government had opened bandwidth to new providers.
Analysts said this could upset the often-restrained competition among the incumbents. And as the new entrants seek to reduce rates, they may also open Japan's market to foreign makers of handsets and network equipment, which frequently offer lower prices than the dominant Japanese electronics giants.
"We're trying to change Japan's mobile market from a totally Japan-centric one to one that's much more international," said Sachio Semmoto, the founder and chief executive of eAccess, which plans to offer low-cost voice service. "We are inviting in international vendors because we want to find the best equipment at the best price."
Analysts say the government had two goals in opening bandwidth. One was relief for Japanese callers, who pay the world's highest prices for mobile service -- about four times as much a minute as cellphone users in New York. The other was a desire to use market forces to keep Japan at the forefront of new wireless technologies.
Japan has been a trendsetter in cellphones, with highly advanced handsets and a third-generation high-speed wireless network, installed in 2001. But in areas like mobile broadband, which gives computers Internet access without their being tethered to a cable, Japan is in danger of falling behind other countries, analysts say. The new entrants have promised to help close this gap, offering part of their bandwidth for wireless Internet access.
Kazuyo Katsuma, telecommunications analyst for JP Morgan Securities Asia, wrote in a report on Tuesday that the government wants to "uphold Japan's reputation as an advanced broadband nation," adding that it planned further allocations of bandwidth by 2007 for technologies like WiFi and WiMax. WiMax is considered a successor technology to WiFi in its ability to deliver data transmissions over longer distances.
The newcomers say they plan to spend up to US$3 billion each building wireless networks, with a big part of that going to foreign equipment makers. Likely suppliers include South Korean handset makers like Samsung and LG Electronics and Western manufacturers like Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks. Until now, Japan's market has been dominated by domestic producers like Fujitsu and NEC.
Semmoto said eAccess had lined up financing to build its low-cost service from a range of backers including Goldman Sachs, which eAccess said would provide more than US$200 million.
Softbank, a big Japanese Internet provider, plans a similar voice service. IP Mobile said it intended to offer mobile broadband service nationwide by 2010.
Analysts say the newcomers stand a good chance against giants like NTT DoCoMo that still do not offer cheaper services. That failure "creates a big opening for the new market entrants," Katsuma wrote.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)