Motorola debuted Fri. its online gaming handset in China, picked because it’s a huge gaming market. Motorola launched its E680G in adapted form to work with titles by Chinese game operator Shanda Interactive Entertainment, it said. “Eighty-three percent of China mobile phone users play games on their mobile phones. This is why we've chosen China first,” Motorola N. Asia Gen. Mgr.-Business Development Ian Chapman-Banks said.
Exports to China
Wi-Fi service provider Boingo will add Q-Ware Systems of Taiwan to its network of Wi-Fi hotspots. Taipei’s WiFly citywide wireless network is part of the deal. Boingo is the first foreign service provider granted roaming access to WiFly. Boingo subscribers visiting Taipei will have access to it. Taipei’s metro network, Asia’s first and largest, uses about 4,100 access points on 42 main roads, providing wireless signal coverage to most residential and business districts. China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Singapore also are covered by Boingo’s network.
NTIA will report tomorrow (Tues.) on DTV converter boxes, an agency source told us. Topics will include state efforts to control converter box power use. Mandatory power limits concern the agency as it works for a smooth DTV transition, the official said. In weighing state curbs on converter energy use, the report is expected to assess their potential impact on the transition.
Millicom Cellular quit talks to be bought by China Mobile (CM) for $5.3 billion. Executives of the Luxembourg- based carrier pulled out of the deal hours before they were to fly to Beijing to announce it, according to news reports in Asia. The deal would have been the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese company. Millicom said the acquisition came close but died because CM isn’t in a “position within an acceptable timeframe to make a binding offer that is suitably attractive, given the current strong performance of the business.”
GENEVA -- Progress in closing the digital divide has been made in mobile telephony, officials said here Wed. at the launch of a report on implementation of work agreed on during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Mobile Internet, namely 3G, Wi-Fi and mobile broadband, are new forces in the digital divide, said Tim Kelly, head of ITU’s strategy and policy unit.
A broadcaster-activist deal on kid TV ad limits may be a model for compromises, said FCC Comr. Tate. “I'm hoping we're going to move forward on that,” she said of the proposal under FCC review (CD March 20 p12). “That’s such a great example of what can happen,” Tate told us after an FCBA luncheon at which she spoke, mainly giving advice to high school grads accepting college scholarships from media and telecom firms. Tate declined comment on the benefits and problems of media consolidation. She said, as she has before, that media should teach kids about problems including childhood obesity, saying: “Broadcasters, as I've said many times, have been given a national resource, and a finite resource.” On a recent trip to China, Tate said, she found regulators there want to address issues like those their U.S. counterparts have in their sights, such as DTV and net neutrality. “They're rewriting their telecom act right now,” Tate said. “I don’t know if it’s going to take them or us longer to pass,” she added, to laughter.
MAINZ, Germany -- There’s a consensus on the need for flexibility in spectrum management for future multimedia mobile environments, said panelists at the ITU New Initiatives Conference that continues here through Fri. But what’s meant by flexibility differs very much, said panelists from various national regulatory agencies in Europe. “The complexity of multimedia mobile markets increases the risk that regulators make a bad decision,” warned Anirban Roy of Britain’s Ofcom, which is planning major liberalizations of spectrum management.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) isn’t proposing a rating system for the Internet, a spokeswoman told us Tues. In its 2005 annual plan, Dir. David Cooke said the BBFC is looking into “the implications of the growth of new media for our system of regulation.” No one, he said, “should assume that [inappropriate] material will be confined to established platforms such as film and DVD.” The board suggested a system like its film classifications, and invited the govt. to consider the issues. On Mon., The Times reported the BBFC was suggesting it provide the first Internet content ratings. But the board spokeswoman said the issue is film content, “mainly video on demand (VoD) which is still very much in its infancy.” In the U.K., DVDs must be classified by the BBFC, “and we are saying that when VoD becomes more widespread and more whole films are downloaded, there should be some labeling system which allows people to know what the content is and, therefore, avoid what they do not wish to see, and ensure that their children are not watching inappropriate films.” Privacy International Dir. Simon Davies was quoted as saying the board’s idea sounds “like the most stupid intervention since the registration of fax machines and photocopiers in communist China.”
China Unicom might sell about $1 billion in shares to SK Telecom, according to Tues. media reports out of Asia. Unicom is China’s 2nd-largest mobile operator; SK, by far S. Korea’s largest, has been expanding for 2 years. “Our board of directors is currently discussing entering the Chinese market through purchasing China Unicom convertible bonds,” SK wrote in a filing to the Korea exchange this week (translation by The Hong Kong Standard). Other reports said the buyout would constitute about 10% of Unicom’s total market capitalization.
3G Americas and Informa Telecoms & Media said Tues. GSM subscribership will hit 2 billion worldwide by June 30, with only 400 million using an alternative technology. The groups project they'll hit the 3 billion mark in 2010. Latin America and the Caribbean are growing most quickly, adding 74 million GSM subscribers March 2005-March 2006 -- a 97% growth rate. China is the largest market with 662.6 million subscribers. “It took approximately 12 years to reach the first one billion GSM subscriptions, back in 2004, but only two and a half years to hit the next billion GSM/UMTS subscriptions,” the groups said.