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(Almost) I-mode Service Coming in April
DJSK8 Mast0r Ralph McDaniels writes: "Looks like NTT DoCoMo Inc's investment in AT&T last year is coming to fruition as this article from allnetdevices.com lays claim to AT&T rolling out i-mode based services repackaged for the U.S. market as m-mode service with Motorola, Sony/Ericcson, Nokia and Siemens offering the requisite phones to take advantage of it. Not quite 3G, but seems on par with the 2.5G services Verizon recently rolled out, though both are a far cry from the 100Mbit/20Mbit 4G services DoCoMo is already working on."
I-mode stands for "intellgent mode" or "intelligence mode". Phones with this feature are able to locate their callers within a 10 meter radius due to embedded processing that keeps track of your location at all times and periodically reports back to the cell tower for hand-off purposes.
In other words, no big, just a new application. I'm worried about privacy issues, though.
A few months ago, I bought a Palm VII... only to find that the PalmNet service, provided Cingular, wouldn't work anywhere around my area (a not-so-terribly remote part of Northern California). Their coverage chart said that coverage was "partial" or something like that, but I was unable to get a strong enough signal anywhere to even complete the sign up process.
Oh well, I ended up taking the Palm VII back and exchanging it for an m125, which has worked fairly well. Because of a promotional deal, I got a free games card, so instead of wasting time surfing the net on my Palm, I waste time playing Chess and SimCity. Hmm...
"Anything is better than IE, and you can quote me on that." -- Wil Wheaton.
ATTWS, Cingular, Voicestream are building GPRS networks now, they only have to upgrade via hardware to full GSM. They are spending the money NOW to build the networks and hardware.
Sprint,Verizon have to do 2 steps to get to full GSM, This is a more expensive, and slower option.
I-Mode and WAP etc is all support by standard webservices, so all you need is an apache webserver to roll out the services. (Ok, some back end software but not the cost)
Will be interesting to see what happens.
Does anyone know whether the new phones will give AT&T customers easy portability through Europe and Asia? Would I be able to take my phone with me, or at least the card? The new phones are GSM after all, right?
The Ericsson T68 will be available from ATT for $199. This is a steal considering it's going for $500 elsewhere.
Also, I've noticed that ATT has had some issues in markets where the I-mode stuff is being rolled out. Lately, people who call me get my voicemail and my phone doesn't ring at all. Many of my friends and co-workers using ATT have noticed this also. They pushed up their release date for this stuff by a few months, so I'm sure they are hurrying to get the networks up and working properly, which probably causes some problems with the current network.
ATT wireless rocks BTW. I've had them for like 6 years, and never had a problem. Even though sprint is coming out with 3G soon, they still suck. Don't ever sign a Sprint contract unless you use a phone from them for a month or so. The service in most areas is spotty, and you will incur roaming charges when you can't get a sprint signal. Several people I know have it for work, and all they do is complain about how much it sucks.
Now my phone will finally work out of the country. Yay.
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I've been a loyal AT&T wireless customer for over 3 years now (I'm forced to use it because its a business account) and I've had an 8260 for over 2 years now. My phone is on its last leg but AT&T has not had an exciting phone since the release of the 8260. They have a Motorola V60 but it has no major advantages over the 8260. When are we going to see new phones? Nextel has some really neat phones with a lot of features but their coverage in my area (PA) is sporadic at best. The phone I really want is the 7650 but it doesn't look like it will be arriving in the states anytime soon.
Text below is from Verizon press release
Verizon Wireless plans a trial of a high-speed network next month that would offer advanced wireless Internet connections to businesses at speeds comparable to those achieved by DSL and other landline connections. The network, which will be tested in Tysons Corner, Va., and Rockville, Md., will be capable of data-transmission speeds of up to 2.4 megabits per second, potentially up to 100 times faster than current wireless data-transmission speeds. The trial complements Verizon Wireless' current rollout of third-generation and packet-data services by providing higher data capacity and throughput. "We have had tremendous success with our Express Network launch, and with an eye toward the future, we are sowing the seeds for the rollout of the next evolution of this technology," said Bill Stone, executive director-Network Strategy for Verizon Wireless. The higher-speed wireless network, using a technology labeled "1X EV-DO," is expected to help business customers enhance the productivity of their work force. For example, with Internet Protocol (IP) virtual private network (VPN) connections, business customers would be able to access the Verizon Wireless network as an extension of their corporate LAN or intranet, allowing their employees to work from any location as if they were in the office. The test is being conducted using technology from Lucent. Verizon Wireless also plans to begin a similar test in the San Diego area beginning in June that will feature the technology of Nortel Networks. Verizon Wireless will select participants for the trials. The trial results will help Verizon Wireless determine the best practical applications for the network.
What has made i-mode popular in Japan is that it has a mix of services that people really like. Much of the revenue comes from seemingly mundane applications such as teenagers exchanging Hello Kitty cartoons and ringer tunes. AT&T said that some of the services that are popular in Japan, such as cartoons, will not be included, so the question is can they figure out a mix of services that will be popular in the U.S.?
The one service that is most likely to be successful is Short Message Service (SMS). But success of SMS depends more on service interoperation and an easy way to type in your message than it does on high bandwidth technology.
The brilliant thing about DoCoMo's i-Mode service in Japan is the way they encourage independant content providers. Several thousand i-mode specific websites are able to take micropayments/subsciptions that appear as very small charges on customer bills. Its a cottage industry that gives consumers some really innovative options and lets many small content providers earn a living. Imagine that!
c omo_pr. html
Wired ran a nifty story on these a few months back:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.09/do
But expect ATTW to hoard all the marbles and dole them out to the likes of AOL...
A truly great wireless web service will give incentives to local small-time content developers. But most of what we are seeing in the pipeline will be more of the big boys duking it out for turf that consumers are wary of entering. And losing tons of money in the process.
"The U.S. Constitution - not perfect, but its better than what we have now"
I'm not gonna argue about any of the GSM or any of the technical stuff, but the features of I-Mode and just the cell phones in general really amazed me, and showed how primitive my Nokia 5165 really was after spending a week visiting a friend in Japan. 16-bit color graphics, 32-voice polyphonic sound (so your ringtones can be that much more annoying), digital cameras, videoconferencing (available in December 2002), and the java games...In one of the booklets I brought back, it showed that you could play Street Fighter II on your cell phone, and it looked almost as good as a Gameboy Color screen, and it was even back-lit.
Of course, the arguments AGAINST this kind of technology is because "you shouldn't be playing games on your cell phone". The mentality explains why they're popular in Japan but not here - at least in Tokyo, you spend a lot of time on public transportation, since it's really good there. What you would do on the trains is open up your DoCoMo and read the news or play a game while going to your destination. In America, you spend most of your time in private transportation (cars) - where you should NOT be playing a game or reading the news on a cell phone. (I fully support any legislation that forces the use of hands-free devices when you're driving)
And the funny thing was on one of the trains. There were signs in the cabin asking you not to use your cell phone at your seat to not disturb the other passengers. Then, in between cars (where you can use them), there's a sign that says that J-Phone (the other provider) is equipping all of the tunnels in Tokyo with receivers so you can still use your phone when you go under a tunnel. So they're saying "Please don't use your cell phones on the train, but we're gonna make it easier for you to use your cell phone on the train!"
So now I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of even a low-end DoCoMo to the US - and unfortunately I've heard that Atlanta will not be GSM compliant until the beginning of NEXT year, so I got a ways to wait.
Hooray! i-Mode is coming to the USA at long last!
Oh wait:
Yup, that's right, they're going to launch an i-Mode service, but they're not going to include any of the things that make it cool! Because, of course, being big execs, they know what the American people know better than the American people themselves do. That's why the portals were such roaring successes, after all, right?
Oh wait, it's not even going to really be i-Mode:
Run that one by me again--it's going to be sorta like i-mode, but not really actually i-mode? Just similar in terms of marketing? What does that mean?
Oh, wait, here's what it means:
It means "We want to launch a service which is kind of like i-mode, only without any of that annoying cool stuff, and without having to pay NTT DoCoMo to license their technology. But we're pretending to be i-mode even while we're disclaiming that we're not so that we can get the right keywords into our press release."
Feh.
Funny thing, Nortel and Lucent supply both every Wireless Telco. So thats a good thing if someone ponys up the bill for testing, then the other telcos can reap the rewards.
Really strange that Nortel/Lucent/Ericson/Nokia dont get more hype, they own the phone networks.
That's the whole point... cool little games. Can I play them? Can I write them? Has any of you?