DoCoMo 3G Phones Get Windows Media

The third generation (3G) providers in Japan have came to “open war” now. In facing the fast growing of the rival KDDI with CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and BREW platform, NTT DoCoMo chooses Windows Media to support their W-CDMA handset.

Japan’s premier mobile communications company, NTT DoCoMo, provides wireless voice and data communications to tens of millions of subscribers. NTT DoCoMo is the creator of W-CDMA technology, the new de facto global industry standard, as well as the groundbreaking mobile i-mode service.

NTT DoCoMo is collaborating with Microsoft to incorporate Windows Media in its 3G wireless phones. The companies announced Thursday that Windows Media Audio and Digital Rights Management 10 would be used in the F902iS handset NTT will release this summer.

“With support for Windows Media, users of our FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) handsets will enjoy a broader range of services and more choices for entertainment,” said NTT Vice President Takeshi Natsuno. The options include the ability for NTT customers to use their phones to download music from a number of Web sites via a PC.

The third generation (3G) technology in Japan continues to grow. More than 50 percent of cellular subscirbers in Japan are 3G CDMA now. As of end of February, number of 3G CDMA subscribers of each carrier was as follows: NTT DoCoMo WCDMA: 22,015,000, KDDI 1x/1xEV-DO: 21,159,600 and Vodafone WCDMA: 2,736,200.

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