i-mode Business Strategy

| 07.02.11 | Weekly i-mode Business Newsletter

Top New Stories

1. DoCoMo dips profit announces new flat-data plans

2. Romania goes i-mode in 2007

3. DoCoMo buys into China corporate mobile apps

4. Mobile firms join to cut phone development costs

5. Telstra search fails to find i-mode

What's On

The iCF is an endorsing body for the 2nd Annual Mobile Content Australia Summit, to be held Tuesday 27th & Wednesday 28th March 2007 in Sydney, Australia. Walter Adamson will be speaking on "What Investors are Looking For and How to Present to Them".

If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com

---

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy  

1. DoCoMo dips profit announces new flat-data plans

DoCoMo recorded a profit drop in the 9 months April to December 2006 of 22%, mainly due to the costs of moving subscribers to the FOMA 3G network. The number FOMA subscribers was 32.11m at the end of December 2006 (61.5% of all subscribers). The company aims to have two-thirds of its subscribers using its FOMA service by the end of March 2007.  DoCoMo also battled with mobile number portability during the period, with a net loss of subscribers to KDDI au.

DoCoMo may find that its giant competitor from across the sea - China Mobile - has more luck in international expansion that itself. China Mobile's market capitalization has tripled in the past two years to $184 billion, overtaking both Vodafone and DoCoMo as the world's most valuable mobile-phone operator. The company is ranked as the biggest by users, with 301.2 million subscribers in 2006. China Mobile acquired Pakistan's PakTel for US$284m, giving it access to Paktel's 1.38 million users. That compares with Hutchison Essar Ltd., India's fourth-largest operator, which is valued at about $18 billion by bidders seeking to buy a company with 22.3 million subscribers.

DoCoMo also announced two new flat-rate data plans: Pake-hodai full will enable FOMA™ i-mode™ subscribers with full-browser handsets to view not only i-mode but also PC websites and videos in Windows Media® format (compatible with P903iX HIGH-SPEED) for a flat monthly rate of 5,985 yen (about US$50). Biz-hodai will offer flat-rate packet communications for non-i-mode FOMA handsets, such as the Motorola M1000, at a monthly rate of 5,985 yen (including tax).

Post your opinion below

---

2. Romania goes i-mode in 2007

Cosmote Romania is the Romanian DoCoMo i-mode alliance partner, through its owner Cosmote of Greece. In The Diplomat Bucharest CEO Nikolaos Tsolas tells the amazing story of how Cosmote has turned around a failed mobile operating firm and added almost one million customers in only 12 months - it's interesting reading.

Tsolas says Cosmote Romania will this year launch its i-mode service, which includes high speed data transfer, mainly for corporate usage – but not video. "The truth is that not many are interested in video telephony on mobile," said Tsolas.

^^Back to top

3 Reasons why you should Join the i-mode Content Forum
Check our Aims & Objectives HERE

3. DoCoMo buys into China corporate mobile apps

An interesting announcement by DoCoMo is that the company and UFIDA Software Co., Ltd., "the leading Chinese supplier of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, will enter the corporate mobile solutions market in China through a joint investment in Fidatone Mobile Technology and Service Co., Ltd".

DoCoMo will invest US$5 million (roughly 600 million yen) to acquire an approximately 33.3% equity stake in March 2007 (UFIDA invested $8.42). That makes a $28.42m post-money valuation for this start-up!

A corporate mobile-solution subsidiary to be established by Fidatone in February will utilize DoCoMo's expertise and UFIDA's ERP software and customer base to develop and market the solutions in China.

It's interesting because corporate mobile solutions are noticable by their absence in the Japanese market - there are home-grown and in-house written applications and many business uses of the cellular system but it is hard to find a branded standalone company marketing mobile phone business applications.  It is a market overwhelmingly dominated by consumer applications. Maybe DoCoMo will learn from the Chinese market, and certainly from UFIDA which is a real software powerhouse and far from DoCoMo's strengths.

---

4. Mobile firms join to cut phone development costs

DoCoMo announced that it and Renesas Technology, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Sharp Corporation, and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, plan to jointly develop a next-generation platform for dual-mode handsets supporting HSDPA/W-CDMA (3G) and GSM/GPRS/EDGE (2G). Development of the platform is targeted to complete during Q2 FY2008 (July-September).

By implementing the platform as a base system the manufacturers (Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson) can eliminate the need to each develop common handset functions - significantly reducing development time and costs, allowing the manufacturers to invest more time and resources in developing distinctive handset features and expanding their product portfolio.

The platform will run Symbian. It's a good move by these manufacturers and noticable by its absence is NEC Mobile, which is faltering in its mobile handset business everywhere except Japan.  They would have been consulted and be fully informed about this move, so they must be brewing their own new strategy.

---

5. Telstra search fails to find i-mode

Telstra is DoCoMo's i-mode alliance partner for Australia but you'd be hard-pressed to find any mention of i-mode in their marketing or stores - in fact using the search bar on Tesltra.com "i-mode" or "i-mode" returns the message:

You searched all Telstra sites for the term imode: No Results found.

CEO Sol Trujillo is pushing the NextG 3.5G mobile service with Bigpond Content as the core of his mobile content business. Perhaps Hutchison will take over the i-mode license when Telstra's rights expire.

END
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

---

Independent audits, analysis, project reviews and i-mode strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment - to discuss these and other opportunities, please call or email. | Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) . | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) . | Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.

This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you the i-mode Content Forum (iCF) the world's largest and most active i-mode® content trade association. President Pascal Lorne, and VP Asia-Pacific Walter Adamson.  See our Aims and Objectives.

| 06.08.20 | Weekly i-mode Business Newsletter

Top New Stories

1. i-mode's success from accidental vertical solutions?

2. Ruin your day - i-mode calorie count

3. Surfing beyond in the portal an unhappy experience

4. New handsets - handy but boring

5. Mobile auctions and fraud hot-up in Japan

What's On

The i-mode Content Forum is a media partner for London's Mobile Content World, 19-21 September 2006 - and our members qualify for a 10% discount off the registration price (£1995 + VAT) for all i-mode Content Forum members. more...

The iCF is also a Media Partner for the Mobile Gambling, Gaming & Lotteries Summit North America 2006 and the 2nd annual Mobile Gambling Summit Asia 2006. The North America Summit is October 3-4, in Montreal, and the Asian Summit from October 31 - November 1, in Hong Kong. Read more, and register here.

If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com

---

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

1. i-mode's success from accidental vertical solutions?

Our erstwhile contributor Mike Gauba of why i-mode was an accidental success fame received good coverage in the Indian Financial Express this week with his views on why the mobile internet is a different paradigm to mobile commerce.

The message is crisp and clear – mobile commerce is a different paradigm to Internet and any future attempt to replicate the latter’s success in mobile space will be an absolute fallacy.

As Mike has posted on this site, his contrasts the usage of the Internet which "has evolved as a solution that synergises with an environment over which the user has a greater control like an office or a home".

The user likes to sit back, research, evaluate and ponder over the outcomes before it makes decisions.

[Whereas] 'on the go' usage is prescriptive, compulsive and requires quick decision making.

i-mode knowingly or unknowingly was designed and positioned as mobile Internet – mobile access to Internet or horizontally inhabited spaces that are local to the operators. i-mode supports an operator specific horizontal ecosystem of about 90,000 sites in Japan and a “bit pipe” business model – which draws its revenue from the traffic going to all those sites and the sale of content that drives that traffic.

This business model though it takes its genesis from Internet has had very limited success for the lack of verticals that synergize with 'on the go' needs.

Gauba explains a general lack of "mobile internet" success as being because "most of the mobile Commerce initiatives launched in the last five years are i-mode 'me too', with their promoters little appreciating that the limited success that i-mode has enjoyed does not come from the horizontal paradigm but from a small number of verticals like mobile mail – an application that disrupted the market and drove 50,000 new subscribers day-after-day to subscribe to it.

Post your opinion below

---

2. Ruin your day - i-mode calorie count

In the UK, i-mode and Nutracheck have got together to offer a full-on diet programme. You set your weight loss aims, and then enter what you eat on your i-mode phone. You can even enter the barcode number of certain items, such as coffee shop products and alcoholic drinks. Nutracheck Mobile™ combines a food diary approach with a calorie-controlled diet, and it will let you know how your'e doing against your target.

There are 4 ways to find foods:

1. By barcode – simply key in the last 4 numbers of a barcode
2. By category search – choose from the lists provided
3. By text search* – key in description of the food you are looking for e.g. tomatoes, and the program will connect to the internet to search up to 30,000 products to find any foods related to your search
4. Using 'search web'* – if you can’t find the product you are looking for in the food database that sits on your phone (up to 22,000 items), you can extend your search to include all items in the 30,000 strong online database too. To add the chosen item to your food diary, simply click on it.

* these two search methods require i-mode connection – usual data transfer costs apply.

^^Back to top

3 Reasons why you should Join the i-mode Content Forum
Check our Aims & Objectives HERE

3. Surfing beyond in the portal an unhappy experience

The Times Online reports that over the past year, 5.5m Britons accessed the internet on their mobile phones, which constitutes only 15% of the mobile-phone-owners in the UK. Yet Continental Research reports that 41% of mobile surfers are unhappy with the choice of mobile websites.

The article finds that people generally find it too hard to surf away from the operator portal sites, and too expensive.

DoCoMo's i-mode partner O2 "admits trying to draw traffic to i-mode, but denies deliberately making life difficult for people wanting to go beyond. Mobile surfing with normal Wap phones, it believes, is simply not up to much", according to Jag Minhas, chief architect for data products at O2.

Of course the logical of the .mobi promoters is to improve the mobile surfing experience.

---

4. New handsets - handy but boring

Stuff Magazine's Mark Wilson get's the "wish I had of thought of that" Award for the week with his headline "LG's stealthy simpleton joins i-Mode army".

The Japanese still find our paltry collection of i-Mode handsets endlessly amusing", but we may not be a world laughing stock for much longer – O2 has added this basic LG number to its ever-growing roster of compatible handsets.

He reports on O2's release of the L343i - O2's sixth handset to offer i-Mode - and as he says it is great to have the range extended but oh so boring.  That's the reason I didn't even bother to report recently when Motorola announced the launch of the SLVR L7 with i-mode in Ireland.  Of course a good i-mode range is essential, but these handsets with VGA-style cameras, for example, are at the bottom of the heap of user experience.

---

5. Mobile auctions and fraud hot-up in Japan

On the societal side of mobile usage in Japan, reported online crime hit a record high in Japan in the first six months this year, led by growing fraud in Internet auctions. Some 90% of fraud cases related to Internet auctions. Online auctions are seen as a growth industry in Japan, with Internet giant Rakuten and DoCoMo last year forming an alliance to take on Yahoo (and Softbank Mobile), the Internet auction leader in Japan.

In the same vein, KDDI said it will set up a new payment and notification system to make it safer for its mobile phone customers to use its auction service.

Mobile mail was also in the news, with "a large volume of English-language junk e-mails marketing male impotence drugs has been sent to domestic mobile phones from overseas since late last month". Softbank is warning customers not to access any sites advertised on junk e-mails.

Prof. Masakatsu Morii, of the Faculty of Engineering at Kobe University, said: "It's a wonder there weren't previous cases of junk e-mail being sent in English. I'm afraid that in the future, junk e-mails in many languages will find their way to Japanese mobile phones."

And finally, more than 40% of junior high school students with cellphones use them to exchange e-mail messages with people they have never met, according to a survey. The joint survey was conducted by Hirotsugu Shimoda, a media studies professor at Gunma University, and DoCoMo's Mobile Society Research Institute from October 2005 to January. The survey covered about 4,600 students.

END
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

---

Independent audits, analysis, project reviews and i-mode strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment - to discuss these and other opportunities, please call or email. | Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632. | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) +33 670 765 643. | Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.

This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you the i-mode Content Forum (iCF) the world's largest and most active i-mode® content trade association. President Pascal Lorne, and VP Asia-Pacific Walter Adamson.  See our Aims and Objectives.

| 06.07.30 | Weekly i-mode Business Newsletter

Top New Stories

1. DoCoMo profit hit by customer conversion costs to 3G

2. O2 i-mode tariffs confuse retail staff

3. Funk taps into user-generated content through i-mode

4. Data revenue grows 39% in Japan

5. 3G take-up accelerating globally

What's On

The i-mode Content Forum is a media partner for London's Mobile Content World, 19-21 September 2006 - and our members qualify for a 10% discount off the registration price (£1995 + VAT) for all i-mode Content Forum members. more...

For Australia AUGUST 7 - on the event list is Mobile Monday Melbourne - networking for the mobile content industry - when: 6.30pm to 8.30pm 7th August - where: Horse Bazaar, Digital Art Gallery Bar, 397 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne - cost: free. Guest speaker @ 7pm: Walter Adamson, of Digital Investor, speaking on Mobile TV - the next digital content revolution.

If you're interested in mobile search news, see the latest at Goobile.com

---

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

1. DoCoMo profit hit by customer conversion costs to 3G

Reporting on a drop in net profit DoCoMo indicated that the number of subscribers to 3G FOMA service was 26.22m at the end of June 2006, accounting for 50.7% of total subscribers. Sales in its mainstay cell phone division rose 3.1% on a net increase in the number of subscribers, but operating profit fell 3.5% due to high customer acquisition costs (up 8.6% from a year earlier).

"But by hiking procurement of inexpensive 700 series FOMA handsets, I would like to bring down overall sales costs a bit," said DoCoMo President Nakamura. The low-end 700 series cellphones now sell for about US$100 each.

DoCoMo's average monthly revenue per user fell to 3,170 yen in the first quarter from 3,320 yen a year earlier, and the average monthly usage per user declined to 62 minutes from 74 minutes. DoCoMo also revealed that it's sold more than 1 million Felica-equiped "wallet phones", 18 months after the first phones using the contactless IC chip technology were put on sale. Including the 902i series, DoCoMo has a total of 17 types of phones with the function.

Post your opinion below

---

2. O2 i-mode tariffs confuse retail staff

UK i-mode alliance partner O2 have hit the news again over tariffs - for perhaps the wrong reasons and the right reasons. The tariff was specifically designed to be sold on O2 i-mode mobiles such as the Samsung z320i and the Samsung s500i, but staff at the various outlets had been offering the tariff on non i-mode mobile phones due to the value that it offered.

Good offer, poor sales training.

O2 have now axed that tariff, and replaced it with new offers which cover a wider range of customers.  There are reports of a series of bungled communications about tariffs between O2 and its retail outlets and subscribers.  The latest one follows previous adverse reaction to plan changes in which subscribers were meant to notified by SMS, but many complained that they did not see the SMS and subsequently ran up large phone bills as the replacement plans came into affect.

^^Back to top

3 Reasons why you should Join the i-mode Content Forum
Check our Aims & Objectives HERE

3. Funk taps into user-generated content through i-mode

Funk "sunglasses + equipment" a hip provider, has launched a promotion in Germany through GoFresh and i-mode.  GoFresh is hosting the promotional campaign on its itsmy.com site, a mobile community accessible only through the mobile internet.

On the e-plus i-mode site, customers will be able to virtually try-on Funk's sunglasses by picking a character and matching it with different styles of Funk's eyewear. Starting in August, customers will be able to upload their own pictures to see how the different styles of sunglasses look on their face before buying.

After virtually trying-on the glasses, customers can insert text and save their images, which can then be published in the community gallery, sent to friends as an MMS greeting, or used as wallpaper.

GoFresh specialises in user-generated mobile content and this campaign is a great brand reinforcement for the Funk style and its community-driven marketing.

- It's worth exploring the whole e-plus i-mode website - it's a high quality and informative site with nice emulation and good discovery (in German).

---

4. Data revenue grows 39% in Japan

Contrary to gloom among some industry watchers Informa Telecoms & Media report that 2005 mobile data revenues exceeded the combined fees paid so far by European operators for their 3G licences.  Global revenues from mobile data services surpassed US$100 billion for the first time, in 2005, at US$102.1 billion, and strong data revenue growth has continued into 2006, with the first-quarter figure of US$28.4 billion up 17% on-year, the research indicated.

Of course, outside Japan the vast majority of data revenue is from SMS.  Within Japan the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry announced the results of the mobile content and commerce market research. The report shows that the mobile content market grew to 722 billion yen (US$6.26b), which is 39% growth from the previous year.

The mobile content including ring tones, mobile games, videos, and photos, grew by 21% to 315 billion yen (US$2.73b) market.

The mobile commerce including shopping sites, booking sites, and transaction sites (stock, auctions, etc.) grew by 57% to 407 billlion yen (US$3.53b) market.

Note: Advertising and promotion services - about 28.8 billion yen (US$250m) market - are not included in above results.

---

5. 3G take-up accelerating globally

3G is catching on and also is another good news story, not the usual bad news.  Just like data revenues it is growing strongly, and most strongly in Asia. The number of mobile users adopting 3G services - such as WCDMA and CDMA2000 1x EVDO - exceeded 100 million at the end of June 2006.

In Japan, as reported above, DoCoMo is aiming to have two-thirds of its subscribers using the 3G FOMA service by the end of March 2007 and DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura told a press conference that 90% of new handset sales were now 3G.

Even in Australia, Chief executive of Hutchison 3 in Australia, Kevin Russell, said 3G services had grown from around 5 to 6% of the total mobile revenue market at the start of 2006 to around 12% today. With mobiles generating more than $10 billion a year, that equates to roughly $1.2 billion. But the news came with a warning that margins in the mobile industry are likely to fall as voice services get cheaper and operators struggle with new data services.

END
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

---

Independent audits, analysis, project reviews and i-mode strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment - to discuss these and other opportunities, please call or email. | Walter | Email Walter | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632. | Pascal | Email Pascal | Call (France) +33 670 765 643. | Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy.

This Weekly Newsletter on the i-mode business ecosystem is bought to you the i-mode Content Forum (iCF) the world's largest and most active i-mode® content trade association. President Pascal Lorne, and VP Asia-Pacific Walter Adamson.  See our Aims and Objectives.

Telstra report a tactical masterpiece

Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy

The 12-month review recently released by DoCoMo i-mode partner Telstra has, on balance, received a more sceptical reception than a positive one.  Typical are headlines such as "Telstra's blame game" or "Telstra blames regulation, competition for share slump". In the article "Sol's strategy won't pay dividends" the reporter, David Potts, says:

Sol's 28-page report to shareholders waiting somewhere in the mail which lists his magnificent achievements in his first year doesn't mention the word dividend once...

Telstra's bizarre ineptitude in dealing with government and regulatory bodies, which should be second nature to it, has torpedoed a full T3, guaranteeing a share overhang and a depressed price for years to come.

Even Sol says his strategy won't pay dividends, whoops wrong word, for at least three and up to five years.

It didn't help that shortly afterwards Telstra CEO Trujillo was voted Australia's least admired chief executive by the financial community.

Contrary to the common sentiment, the Report could be viewed as a masterpiece.  In time I think that this is how it will be viewed by everyone.  Consider these three points:

1. The Report is the best written and clearest explanation for the average punter and investor to have ever come out of Telstra, and perhaps any telco in a stage of reinvention.
2. The Report is aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the average investor and customers and the "man in the street" and in that respect it is 100% accessible to that audience.
3. The Report actually shows in no uncertain terms that the new regime has arrived, and it demonstrates in stark relief how the old guard where totally captured by their own delusions and self-grandeur.

Previously, in every previous generation of Telstra's mandarins, their reports were a combination of corporate doublespeak and political mash - born of a delusion that they were masters of both - able to outwit their staff and customers and outmanouver the political masters at their own game.  That WAS the whole game. And that's why we have Telstra where it is today - having to be overhauled and exposed as it is.

Here is a point of proof about the quality of the Report.  The Australian Shareholders Assocation, representing the small investors (not the institutions who voted Trujillo last) has come out in strong support. 

Australian Shareholders Association deputy chairman John Curry, perhaps surprisingly, thinks the share price fall is good news for shareholders.

He believes Trujillo's honesty has brought Telstra's share price back to a realistic level after a peak of $9.16 in 1999, during the tech boom.

"He says it as it is, and there's no point in kidding yourself," Curry said.

That's why the Report is a winner - and it is no accident. Last year, Telstra's head of regulation Phil Burgess outraged the Australia Government, when he said he would not recommend the company's shares to his mother. At least his mother can now read why, in words that she can understand, and make up her own mind.

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
Telstra 3G Telstra i-mode Sol Trujillo i-mode international

Telstra's 12-month transformation review buries i-mode

Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy

In it's just-released first anniversary progress report on "the transformation to the New Telstra" DoCoMo's Australian i-mode partner mentions i-mode only once in a 30 page review of its new directions.

On 1 July 2005 Sol Trujillo took the reins as Telstra’s new Chief Executive Officer.

He is reputed to be luke warm about i-mode, and it managed one small mention on page 22, and wasn't mentioned in any 3G initiatives, which covered pages. The context was in relation to being one access method for mapping services:

"Whereis maps are also used in Sensis' own services such as Yellow Pages® OnLine and Telstra's WAP and i-mode® phones."

To be fair, WAP was only mentioned once, and neither WAP nor i-mode made it into the Glossary - although such offbeat technology jargon as DSLAM and EVDO and CDMA and IP Core where all there - I guess it is still a telephone company after all.  Overall the Report did a good job of avoiding jargon, and is very readable.

I thought the most interesting parts were the 3G bits, and in particular the 3G network rollout and the justification of the Commonwealth Games sponsorship and promotion under the heading "And the value?".  The Games came at a good time to support the 3G launch and Telstra used them to advantage:

• Video calling increased by 70%
• Call minutes increased 86%
• 3G ARPU increased 39%
• 3G data went up by 42%
• Telstra Shop traffic rose 32%
• The number of 3G handsets sold in stores was up 66%.

Coming back to i-mode, it certainly has no brand value for Telstra and the Bigpond brand is swamping it - since Bigpond has assumed branding responsibility for all 3G content, and I would bet that few of those 3G handsets sold were i-mode handsets.

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
Telstra 3G Telstra i-mode Sol Trujillo i-mode international

Telstra moves to all W-CDMA and IP

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

Telstra has chosen Ericsson to provide a national 3G/WCDMA network, based on WCDMA 850 MHz. The network will be HSDPA capable and builds on the existing agreement where Ericsson is upgrading Telstra's GSM network to 3G/WCDMA.  It will also replace an existing CDMA network. The company also plans to cut its multiple data networks using protocols such as X25 and frame relay and replace them all with a TCP/IP network to carry all voice and data traffic.

As a result as much as 80% of the company’s existing network systems will be switched off. In the voice area the company plans to install high capacity soft switches which will allow it to decommission 116 "expensive and complex to run" class five switches across the capital cities. Voice over broadband will be a part of the new network.

Telstra's arch-rival Optus launched its 3G network supported by Nokia.

In November 2004, Optus jointly announced an infrastructure sharing deal with Vodafone to have Nokia build a shared 3G network. The shared network is the first in the world to feature Nokia's Multi-Operator Radio Access Network (MO-RAN) technology, which allows for the easy sharing of radio services.

Where MO-RANs are deployed they allow for two operators to share the same base station and to share the radio network controller which directs the voice and data traffic back to the operator's own core network. An analogy is that it works like two banks sharing an Automatic Teller Machine.

"The issue for many operators is no longer whether to share a network, but rather, what approach will offer the best solution. We are delighted to have worked with Optus on their 3G network and applications," said Henrik Glud, Optus Account Director for Nokia Australia.

Nokia is providing Optus with complete 3G core and radio networks and turnkey services, including supplying, deploying and testing the equipment in the field as well as network optimization, management, monitoring and maintenance services. Nokia has also provided a 3G operations startup, where Nokia operational staff works along side Optus people while operating the network and through this exersice also train Optus staff.

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
Telstra 3G Australia mobile mobile internet Optus

Telstra bosses 'disgraceful', Australian PM says

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

Fracas, noun, defined as "a quarrel, fight, or disturbance marked by very noisy, disorderly, and often violent behavior" and DoCoMo's Australian i-mode partner remains at the centre of a hurricane Katrina of Australian politics.

The Australian Prime Minister called the management disgraceful, and he said that instead of being frank and open about the state of the telco that "it is the obligation of senior executives of Telstra to talk up the company's interest".

That's an interesting comment, not the least because it comes from the Prime Mininster but because these days company directors and executives can find themselves in prison for talking prospects up.

Among the latest headlines and events surrounding Telstra, over the last few days alone are:

• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched a probe
• Telstra's dividends were seriously at risk
• Senate OKs four-day Telstra inquiry

While there is lots of huffing and puffing from the politicians the Government has little option but to sell the 51.8% of Telstra that it owns in order to fund its way through the next election, and also to to help cover upcoming pension liabilities for retiring public servants. These liabilities already stand at more than A$90bn.

Redesigning a company like Telstra takes a dose of fear, doubt and uncertainty.  The Telstra execs will be looking to get through this stage and start building pride further down the track. The challenge is to build the pride without the hubris.

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
DoCoMo Australia mobile Telstra 3G

Telstra - public uninterested as pollies battle over $3b float slush fund

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

Last week the Australian Government decided to go ahead with the sale of its majority (51.8%) interest in i-mode alliance partner Telstra.  Despite news polls showing that 70% of the population were against the sale, it was always going to go ahead in this period.  For one thing it is the best outcome, and for another the Government needs the money to fund its pork-barrelling next election, having set the scene with record election-spending announcements at the last election.

The dust has not settled over the political infighting for the slush funds needed to buy all the needed votes to progress the sale, but it is generally clear that the biggest losers in the short-term are Telstra boss Sol Trujillo and the 96% of the Australian population who live in the cites and have to put up with Trujillo's observation "that Australia lags badly behind most of the developed world in its telecommunications services".

One journalist - but perhaps the only one to comment, said this:

"Perhaps the most surprising thing is the way the public has sat silent while the Howard Government has been held to ransom by a few noisy National Party pollies. Their votes in the Senate have been bought for the promise of $3.1 billion in funds towards improving telecommunication facilities in the bush at no extra cost to people in the bush. What's that — a mere $3.1 billion? When you remember how much people resent paying tax, the absence of complaint from city people about that impost is remarkable."

In the medium-term Trujillo is guaranteed to walk away a financial winner and Australia will gain by better and more robust telecommunications competition and services - much of which will be as a result of Trujillo's reshaping of Telstra.

Mobile Content World for iCF Members 10% discount for Members Sign Up Mail iCF 6th Annual Conference and Exhibition, 13–15 September 2005 London. MCW Brochure

Right at the moment, in the immediate timeframe, consultants from Bain and Company, which Trujillo had engaged to drill deep into Telstra and who have been using a blunt hammer with staff, alerted him to a sharp decline in Telstra's core, fixed-line business, "a much sharper decline than Telstra's board had been led, or wanted, to believe".

Meanwhile the Head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has told Telstra "to learn to live with any new regulations" that will accompany full privatisation of the telecommunications company. ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said Sol Trujillo and his management team "needed to learn that governments set rules in the public interest, and they must live with them". (A financial newspaper said Mr Trujillo had described the rules as draconian.) "I think once the new Telstra management recognises this, they'll be able to just settle down and work within the framework the government has now set," said Mr Samuels.

Here's an outsider's view of all this, from Matthew Parris, a UK Times journalist holidaying in Australia.  It is a good read, kind of like the Culture Shock series of books - like reading the one about your own country. I liked the bit where he quoted Senator Barnaby Joyce - a politician who came from nowhere to be at the centre of the debate over the sale of Telstra - who delivered the opinion that Australia should aim to be more than "a nation of kitchen renovators".

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
Telstra 3G Australia mobile 3G 3G wireless

Telstra launches Project Active alongside i-mode

Subscribe to i-Mode Business Strategy

The Australian reports that i-mode partner Telstra is planning to launch commercial services on its AU$650 million 3G network on August 1.

But there's a catch for i-mode.

Telstra has built a new mobile-content platform, known as Project Active, and it will be "sold alongside its i-mode mobile service".

Telstra has used assets from its two failed forays into mobile content - WAP and Loop - to help build the new platform.

Telstra technology wireless chief Holly Kramer said Active would be able to provide content across 3G, as well as Telstra's generation 2.5 GPRS network and regionally focused CDMA network.

She declined to say whether the name Active would be used for commercial services.

Telstra is to begin internal trials of Active and i-mode on its 3G network next week.

The Australian reported that "Telstra sources said i-mode, licensed from Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo for about $10 million, had lured fewer than 50,000 users since it was launched last November, despite advertising costing more than $10 million."

A number of Telstra dealers contacted by The Australian said they had declined to sell i-mode.

The reported subscriber numbers seem about right, although the official launch was not until March this year, and the take-up since then has, from all Telstra reports, exceeded their expectations.

Greek i-mode alliance partner Cosmote recently reported 170,000 users after 4 times the period since launch as Telstra and Telstra has not had the opportunity of an Olympic Games to promote its services.  So if Cosmote is a guide, then things would seem to be on track.

Certainly the active users and activity on the i-mode portal has been exceptionally good, and the average subscription revenue has been on target.

The challenge for content providers is simply that the numbers are small in absolute terms, and for dealers the time needed to understand and sell the service is a steep learning curve.

Is Project Active going to help i-mode in Australia?

It's hard to see how it will help, because it splits the dealers' attention and the consumer's attention - and it makes explaining the difference between services a challenge. But obviously Telstra have thought this through and would have sort of a marketing belief build around market segmentation.

Telstra is sharing its 3G network radio infrastructure (the radio access network) with Hutchison, after buying into the Hutchsion network to create a type of shared services arrangement. Telstra and Hutchison will be in competition with another national 3G network jointly built by Optus and Vodafone.

Telstra recently appointed a new CEO, Sol Trujillo (ex-CEO of Orange), and no doubt one of his small interests will be to husband the roll-out of 3G.

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature?  Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!

Technorati Tags:
Telstra mobile Australia Trujillo i-mode 3G

DoCoMo's flat-rate headache spreads to O2

Subscribe to i-Mode Strategy

In the Financial Times Peter Erskine, the chief executive of i-mode alliance partner O2 confirms the "the problem facing all the main operators is that 3 is already shaping the pricing in the market segment."

"3, as the only all-3G offering and the fastest growing has come in and set the upper ceiling for the pricing model," said Carrie Pawsey, mobile phone analyst at Ovum.

GOOBILE.com All Mobile Search News

Along with the three other established UK mobile network operators - Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile - O2 is having to fight to retain customers in the face of a highly aggressive thrust into the market by 3 UK. "Meanwhile, the established network providers face the threat of further erosion at the bottom end of the market, as Virgin Mobile and other so-called virtual operators who piggy-back on others' networks compete for custom with low-cost packages unburdened by the infrastructure costs."

"Our view is that by the end of next year the strong will be getting stronger and the weak weaker - we are one of the strong," Erskine told the FT.

Erskine's view of 3's "flat rate challenge" is consistent with the dislike felt by DoCoMo's Enoki who said: "one of our competitors, AU (the cellular brand of KDDI), started a service so we had to follow them. If we didn't start this service, we would lose the customers. Once we introduce it, we can't retract."

Flat-rates are transforming the global landscape for carriers.  For example as three new 3G networks come online in Australia this year Telstra and its rivals will all have to face off with 3 Australia - as O2 has to in the UK - and create variations to the current business models which preserve margins while matching the customer "value perception".  Perhaps i-mode can play a role in this perception in the early stages?

Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!