Fone Forum

NTT DoCoMo of Japan, renowned for its tight control of its handset experience, is taking a major step towards open access, and promises to offer all its phones unlocked.  From next April, the operator will allow customers to switch handsets and take their devices to other carriers, by inserting a new SIM card, and will include SIM unlock software on all its phones.

This shows the unlocked model, which has made limited progress in many countries because of the lure of subsidies, starting to spread.  In some markets, customers are getting restive about the restrictions of carrier contracts and lock-ins, while in others open access is being mandated for some operators, as with Verizon's LTE network in the US.

DoCoMo hopes its advanced network, and early plans to introduce LTE, will keep customers loyal.  However, it is under rising competitive pressure, and this week its smallest but most aggressive rival, eMobile, 'soft launched' Japan's fastest network.  Using Ericsson kit, the fourth cellco made its new HSPA+ (high speed packet access) services available to select users, promising theoretical download speeds of 42Mbps.  This iteration of HSPA+ has only been adopted by a few carriers so far, notably Australia's Telstra.

The full commercial launch of eMobile's data-driven network, in metropolitan areas such as Tokyo, Tokai and Osaka, will take place by year end.

According to Wireless Intelligence, the small player has 2.5 million subscribers - just 2.3 per cent market share - but enjoyed a high year-on-year growth rate of 52.5 per cent to mid-2010.  It originally relied on an MVNO model but started rolling out its HSPA network, offering flat rate data services, in 2007.  It upgraded to 21Mbps last summer using equipment from Huawei and promises LTE by 2012.

See:-   this (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/07/docomo_emobile_japan/).

NTT DoCoMo of Japan has made a joint Venture with Tata Telecommunications of India where I heard that they (NTT) will allow unlocked handsets to be released in India for its TATA DoCoMo customers in view of their launch of 3G spectrum services being auctioned.

The idea of HSPA @ 42Mbps is really a very good speed.

Out of curiosity I am asking this question here, apart from Norway is there any other country that has launched the full services of 4G / LTE ?

Till date which country provides the fastest net speed both in terms of download and upload limits? If so what are the numbers of their limits?

I do not know but I remember one of my friends told me that there is an EU nation which offers internet at 1 Tera byte per second speed. Is that true?

If the above case is true how come they are able to provide at such a massive speed when other advanced countries are struggling for even 20 Mbps like in UK? Why do people often say availability of bandwidth is the biggest problem in terms if resources? What does this mean by? Is bandwidth also something that we cannot create as much as we like?

Many thanks to someone who clarifies on these questions . . .  :)

I read somewhere that Verizon in the USA were moving smartly towards LTE, but I haven't heard of an actual working 4G / LTE network yet other than the limited one in Sweden.   ;)

Where did you come up with Norway from srikanth.nuli?   :-\

Dear Mobileman,

Thanks for your information. I am not sure about this Norway LTE, it has been passed to me by word of mouth.

So by your post can I assume that apart from Sweden, US is next in line to implement these services? What about UK, its realling struggling to serve the needs of its £G customers properly. How can one assume that they will provide high end LTE services?

--- Srikanth.

Both Norway and Sweden
Read: http://www.telecompaper.com/news/article.aspx?cid=708465

Thanks petkow, that's helpful.        :)

wow......