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(Almost) I-mode Service Coming in April 116

Posted by timothy from the preview-restaurant-menu-choices dept.
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."
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(Almost) I-mode Service Coming in April More

(Almost) I-mode Service Coming in April

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  • Interesting offering, but I'm still inclined to wait a few months for Sprint's rumored 3G debut.

    Anyone heard anything reliable about their roll-out?
    • I used a Sierra Wireless 1xRTT card at CTIA (they had deployed a 1xRTT cell there) which I believe is what Sprint's "3G" service is. It was disappointing to say the least. Took the person running the iPaq a few minutes to get it going, and it barely worked at that. To be honest, I think she was fudging even that much (as the next link she clicked on popped up a 'Page not found' error) and was just showing me a cached page. I'm not terribly impressed.

      Also, the max data rate for these cards is 153.6Kbps, and that is divided up among all users in the cell. It will be interesting to see what "100Mbps" becomes when DoCoMo's 4G service comes out.
    • Their roll out will be followed by a bunch of people buying stuff, and then immediately getting pissed off at Sprint for abhorrent customer support. Then, they'll wait a year and find out that they have to pay $150 for cancelling their service one day early. They'll wonder why the phone rep didn't mention that they could avoid that charge by waiting a day...

      Later on, the customers will find out that other companies exist that provide good support. The suckers born every minute, however, will fill the void and keep sprint afloat.

      Not that I'm bitter or anything. :)
  • ...who don't refer to foreign companies by cozy little nicknames and have no idea what this is about, here's what I was able to dig up (note that it may note be acurate):

    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.

    • Re:For those of us.... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Enry ( 630 )
      I think technology like this is required for Enhanced 911 (the number, not the day), so it will be in all new phones pretty soon.

      • Re:For those of us.... (Score:3, Informative)

        by Atryn ( 528846 )
        That's not correct. e911 requirements relate to the ability to locate a cell phone within a certain distance (like 100 meters), and has nothing to do with data transmission speeds or services (3G and/or i-mode)... BTW -- i-mode is NOT 3G. i-mode is a very good marketing campaign for services via data transmission launched originally by NTT DoCoMo in Japan. 3G is a term for the speed at which data is moved to a wireless device, and its meaning has been eroded over the past year by various cariers.
        • Last I checked, 3G was a frequency band. Am I wrong about this?
          • Last I checked, 3G (third generation) was a lot like VR - it was supposed to be incredibly useful, fun, and accessible within a short period of time.

            The last time I saw a decent VR setup was at the 1996 Calgary Stampede. 3G is probably going to be in the same range of elusiveness.

    • This is *not* correct; a faq about i-mode can be found here:

      http://www.eurotechnology.com/imode/faq.html

      In a nutshell it's a system for mobile internet
      sounds quite interesting but my bank thinks otherwise

  • Sounds cool... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Da Schmiz ( 300867 ) <slashdot AT pryden DOT net> on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:03PM (#3222342) Homepage
    But I wonder how long it will be before we who live in the middle of nowhere will get it.

    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...

  • Imod/Wap GPRS/GSM (Score:4, Informative)

    by BrookHarty ( 9119 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:05PM (#3222362) Journal
    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.

    • Re:Imod/Wap GPRS/GSM (Score:3, Informative)

      by Smitty825 ( 114634 )
      Sprint,Verizon have to do 2 steps to get to full GSM, This is a more expensive, and slower option

      You do realize that Sprint, Verizon, etc, all use a different techonology called CDMA to provide their network services. They are currently using CDMA One, but are currently upgrading to the CDMA 2000 standard known as 1xRTT. This is backwards compatible with earlier CDMA implementations

      That said, GSM is really a 2G system. The GPRS upgradge that Cingular, Voicestream, AT&T, etc are doing is really a 2.5G network technology. I feel that eventually these providers will upgrade to a full 3G network, likely CDMA 2000 or WCDMA (w=wideband). This upgrade will break backwards compatibility with previous generations of phones.

      • No, GPRS is not 2G.

        The 2.5G hardware is fully upgradeable to 3G. You don't have to deploy any more networks. Just a switch of hardware on a given night, and your market is fully 3G deployed. The first step for 3G is to deploy the networks and initial hardware. That's the biggest cost, the basic infrastructure, after thats its switching out hardware. Thats why ATTWS will be at 3G before sprint/verizon.

        Your choice, upgrade now or upgrade later. With upgrading now, people with tri-mode phones are using thier british 3G phones here in the usa, NOW. So its GPRS, the end user doesnt know its GPRS, its thier GSM phone.

        Really, isnt that the coolest thing? Color displays, high speed internet, I-mode, etc.. ATTWS has it out NOW due to GPRS. Sim cards are an awesome feature, you provision your sim card, and you can buy any phone, use any GPRS/GSM phone. Just drop in the SIM and go. It even holds your Addressbook.

        So, ATTWS has it now, Verizon/Sprint will have it later. If you want the cool color displays, high bandwidth, GSM type phones, I-Mode offers, ATTWS has it now. Verizon/Sprint will have it later after they break CDMA.
        -
        I hate quotations. Tell me what you know. - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

        • The 2.5G hardware is fully upgradeable to 3G. You don't have to deploy any more networks. [...]
          people with tri-mode phones are using their british 3G phones here in the usa, NOW. So its GPRS, the end user doesnt know its GPRS, its thier GSM phone. [...]

          So, you must work in marketing for Qualcomm... ;-)

          Seriously though, while I think I know what you're getting at when you assert a difference between deploying a whole new network and a simple "hardware upgrade," I think you've got it backwards.

          True (non-Qualcomm marketing wonk) 3G does require new networks. And new spectrum. All of which is expensive. That's why so many operators are rolling out shared networks at first. AT&T and Cingular announced such an agreement a while ago.

          And... there are no 3G phones from Britain wandering across the pond just yet.

          And... if you're using a GSM phone with GPRS ability, you definitely know it. You configure and use it separately.

          But really though, a "hardware upgrade" vs. "a whole new network." It's a bit like Theseus' Ship, isn't it? From one perspective, 3G is simple a hardware upgrade: you just upgrade your antennae, base stations, switches, HLRs, SMSCs, billing systems, handsets, ...

          • What I mean, is
            TDMA
            2G (TDMA) to 2.5G(GPRS) its a major network upgrade. From 2.5G(GPRS) to 3G(GSM) its a small hardware upgrad
            CDMA
            2G (CDMA) to 2.5G?(CDMA2000) is a hardware upgrade.
            2.5G?(CMDA) to 3G(GSM) is a larger network/hardware upgrade. (I'm not sure about the CDMA world)

            • 2G (TDMA) to 2.5G(GPRS) its a major network upgrade. From 2.5G(GPRS) to 3G(GSM) its a small hardware upgrad

              This is where I meant you had it backwards. It's a small(ish) hardware upgrade to add GPRS to a GSM network. It needs no new antennae and what not. GSM is 2G, GPRS is 2.5G, and UMTS is (true) 3G.

              UMTS uses entirely different spectrum and air interface (CDMA, not TDMA like GSM), not to mention signalling protocols, etc. UMTS is a massive upgrade and is usually considered "a whole new network."

              The TDMA you're thinking of is ANSI-136. That specifies the nuts and bolts of the air interface. GSM has different specs, but both use "TDMA" as the means of multiplexing. (Since they're similar, they can be made (forced) to interoperate. This is usually through GAIT [cingular.com].)

              The CDMA you're thinking of is ANSI-95. Again, an implementation of "CDMA" as a multiplexing means. UMTS also uses "CDMA" for multiplexing, but to much different specs than current CDMA networks.
        • No, GPRS is not 2G. The 2.5G hardware is fully upgradeable to 3G.

          GPRS itself is a 3G style of network, but it is for data only (at least so far in the USA). All voice calls go over the existing TDMA/GSM networks that the operators already have installed.

          Color displays, high speed internet, I-mode, etc.. ATTWS has it out NOW due to GPRS

          Those features aren't out because of GPRS, Verizon has similiar features in its phones if you are on one of the supported CDMA 2000 networks of theirs. (I haven't heard anything on Sprint's 3G network). I don't know the rollout size of AT&T's GPRS network compared to Verizons, etc, but I'm guessing it's similiar in size.

          I'm not saying one technology is going to be better than the other (let's wait about 2 years before jumping to a conclusion). However, each technology is going to provide benefits and drawbacks compared to the other. However, much of your arguments are based on 1) cost of network upgrades, which is mainly an issue of how upgradeable the vendor's hardware is and 2) The cool services that *ALL* 3G networks will provide.

          • Its hard to get all the phone vendors to offer their color 3G phones in cdma/tdma models. With 80% of the world being GSM, they only have to make small modifications to make the phones work on GPRS networks. Thats why those GSM phones are starting to show up on the ATTWS stores.

            GPRS itself is a 3G style of network, but it is for data only (at least so far in the USA).
            GPRS is voice & data. CDPD was the data only model.

            BTW, Smitty, check your journal for a private message.
            • Check my journal for my email address.
            • GPRS is voice & data. CDPD was the data only model.

              I guess you *could* put voice over GPRS, but it certainly wasn't intended for it...It does support Ip, so I guess you could do Voice over Ip, but I don't know that it would be up to the Quality of service that customers would expect.

              Its hard to get all the phone vendors to offer their color 3G phones in cdma/tdma models. With 80% of the world being GSM, they only have to make small modifications to make the phones work on GPRS networks

              While much of Europe is using GSM, only a minority of the USA is using GSM. In most places in the US (IIRC), AT&T, Cingular, etc are still using the TDMA technology to provide voice service. There are even companies that don't make phones for GSM!

              Also, saying something like "80% of the world uses" as an argument doesn't fly to well on Slashdot. At least 90% of the world uses Windows, but that doesn't mean it's the best choice.
      • Im not 100% about this, but from what I have been told, the military uses the G3 radio range that is needed for full G3. On the other hand though Voicestream has allready rolled out its GPRS system nationwide. AT&T has done it a few markets, but they are still upgareding to GSM1900, so they are far off from a complete roll out.
    • First of all, Verizon and Sprint are launching / have launched CDMA 1XRTT networks, not GPRS/GSM networks.

      Second, implenting 1XRTT (144 kbps) for Sprint and Verizon is a much simpler and cheaper upgrade. It consists of installing an extra card into the base station and minor upgrades to software.

      Verizon is already testing CDMA 1X EV-DO, which allows download speeds of up to 2.4 Mbps. Sprint and Verizon will be head of the rest of the pack in speed, performance for quite a long while.

      Also, lets not forget about 802.11b!!! This technology will soon be offered by the wireless carriers to supplement their data services in various "hotspots."

  • I thought they'd already got a 3G network up and running on the Isle of Man - or was that project already scrapped?

  • New phones. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Lemmy Caution ( 8378 )
    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?

    • Re:New phones. (Score:4, Informative)

      by evilned ( 146392 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:15PM (#3222454) Homepage
      Sorry, I wouldnt bet on it. although GSM is finally in america, the frequency used everywhere else isnt available here. Personally, the one thing that irks me is having to go through AIM to message anyone off of the sprint pcs network.
      • FYI -- Nextel (which runs iDEN in the US) uses GSM & iDEN for roaming overseas. You can take a SIM card from any of the newer Nextel phones and place them in an int'l roaming handset (i2000+). Also, Nextel fully supports emailing from the phone to any email address (and thus any carrier) for a flat $5 / month, unlimited use, no minutes, etc.

        • Having to go through an email gateway to send someone a short message is a gratuitous hack.

          The reason SMS gets used so much overseas is because all you need is someone's phone number, as opposed to the knowledge of which provider they're with, that particular provider's number-to-email mapping, etc.

          In some ways, it's the old "but we have a gateway" excuse. They can't do it right, but they can put a couple of hacks in place, and it isn't too inconvenient. Right?

      • Get the Motorola Tri-Band. Nice form factor, good battery life and works in Europe and the US. I have one and think it is REALLY nice.

        The Nextel multi-band are simply too brickish...

    • Re:New phones. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cato ( 8296 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:20PM (#3222496)
      Just be sure to get a tri-band GSM phone - the US uses GSM at 1900 MHz, while the rest of the world uses a mix of 900 and 1800 MHz.

      Even if you get a single-band phone, you should be able to take your GSM phone's SIM card and put it in phones that you rent overseas (called SIM roaming) - but it's much more convenient to just use your phone everywhere, with all the phone numbers and other setup. I've used my GSM phone all round Europe and it worked fine in India (Mumbai) when I was there.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:12PM (#3222432)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Obviously you don't live in New York City. There, everyone bitches about AT&T. I've known plenty of people to look for suckers to buy off their contracts. And Sprint coverage is really good there; I've gotten calls in the subway.

      Some of this has to do with the same kind of "competition" that air carriers and bus lines engage in; choose areas where you won't pour your precious capital into beating the competition, choose areas where you'll blow them away, and choose areas where it's a real contest. Take what I said above and reverse the names of the companies, and you've got LA.

  • 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 [nextel.com] 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 [nokia.com] but it doesn't look like it will be arriving in the states anytime soon.
    • I love my Nextel i85s but the standby time is only about 2.5 days (and I don't even make too many calls). I've heard of similar problems with the i90 (the new nextel flip). My old PacBell Wireless Nokia 6190 was capable of doing about a week between charges.
      • All the freaking Nextel's have this problem! I guess the radio feature for direct connect must eat some serious batteries because my i550 gets like 2 days idle time even though it's the heaviest phone I've owned since bag phones went out of style. It also does a horrible job of charging while on, which tells me that it's sucking too much juice to charge the battery and stay on the network at the same time.
    • The Nokia 8390 (2.5/3G) being offered now is an awesome phone, if you want to stay with Nokia. Faceplates, nifty keypad, games..

      The Ericsson T68 is really cool too though, you can customize the (color) background, it's got bluetooth for connecting to your laptop (even with a blinky blue light when you're using it).

      Both are available in the AT&T Wireless stores.. at least in markets where the 2.5/3G stuff has launched. (I know it's in Seattle & Phoenix, and a few more)

      Eric

  • Verizon is testing new high speed wireless service (Score:3, Informative)

    by genka ( 148122 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:23PM (#3222519) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • I-mode is about services rather than technology (Score:3, Informative)

    by nyssa ( 250538 ) <greg@@@grahamtx...net> on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:27PM (#3222556) Homepage
    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.

  • prediction: They will f*ck up on the content... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by slashdaughter ( 309904 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:37PM (#3222645)
    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!

    Wired ran a nifty story on these a few months back:
    http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.09/doc omo_pr. html

    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.

  • I spent a week in Japan, and can't wait for DoCoMo (Score:4, Informative)

    by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @01:41PM (#3222670) Homepage
    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.
    • I second that. I was in Japan for 10 days in January, and, damn, their cell phones rock. Simply put, phones here in the U.S. are complete crap compared to what's available in Japan. Sending video emails and downloading mp3s to your phone rules.

    • >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.

      Actually, while I was at the Verizon store today (don't even ask. You don't want to know), I found out from one of the technicians that Verizon is currently selling a 1X phone in Atlanta and is expected to have the service available by next month. It's not GSM, but it's a definite improvement over current CDMA. He stated that the initial data speed will be 144Kbps, with faster tiered service available in the future.

  • if you want to run a w4r3z server from your cell phone


  • Many places still don't have DSL or Cable, or if they do, there's pricing/access snafus that muck it up.

  • http://www.attws.com/mobileinternet/

    Its interesting to note that their per K charge is really high, somewhere in the order of 3 cents per kilobyte. Way too high.

  • Better read that more closely (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dagbrown ( 126362 ) on Monday March 25, 2002 @02:25PM (#3223018) Homepage

    Hooray! i-Mode is coming to the USA at long last!

    Oh wait:

    Applications will include messaging (SMS, instant messaging and email), information services and entertainment. Certain features popular in Japan, such as cartoons, "just wouldn't sell here in the States", and have been eschewed, Blasi said.

    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:

    "We plan to launch a consumer offering next month," AT&T Wireless spokesperson Ritch Blasi said. "It's not i-mode, it's based on i-mode - the technology and the methods DoCoMo uses in terms of marketing."

    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:

    The US firm will not pay NTT DoCoMo license fees, unlike other NTT DoCoMo partners in Europe, including KPN Mobile in the Netherlands and Germany, both of which launched recently.

    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.

    • Correct. m-mode will be i-mode without the open market for service providers. What a very silly company.
    • The thing about i-mode is that it's not a technology but simply a set of related services. In a sense, it's just a marketing buzzword for a collection of features that are appealing to consumers and have defined the cel phone experience in Japan. Sorta like what AT&T is already trying to do with Mlife here. So, in that way, you don't need to replicate it exactly in the US, since there's nothing precise upon which to base it in the first place. i-mode has been evolving since day one.

      What unites all of i-mode's services and features is that they are all extremely easy to use, visually appealing and cheap by design - that includes the handsets (well, except for the "cheap" part), the user interfaces and the available i-mode "sites" (though DoCoMo is careful to *never* use internet terminology - calling i-mode the "wireless web" is fundamentally against what i-mode is all about). At the time i-mode was introduced, these features were all for the most part unique in Japan - as was the business model. But it was the ease of use and general friendliness of i-mode that caused it to catch on.

      There's a well-known story about the head of DoCoMo getting the idea for i-mode by handing a random woman in a line a cel phone and asking her what was wrong with it - her answer was that she couldn't figure out how to use it. If AT&T's going to take the cop-out American attitude that they need to sell this service to business users first, they'll fail - i-mode was always a consumer-oriented service.

      It's possible that even with significant changes AT&T could still get i-mode right, especially if they listen carefully to DoCoMo - who are pretty tuned in to why i-mode caught on the way it did in Japan. It's not about appealing to business users, and it's not about the "wireless web" - it's simply about connecting people to both each other as well as lots and lots of information and doing it in the easiest to use, most attractive and cheapest way possible. AT&T doesn't need to replicate the Japanese feature set precisely, but they do need to understand what makes i-mode i-mode as opposed to every other wireless web service out there.
    • Sounds like they want to rip off the hard work of copyright/patent owners (DoCoMo)! Aah, if only DoCoMo had a lobby group in the US...
  • That's the whole point... cool little games. Can I play them? Can I write them? Has any of you?
    • I've been in Japan for about six months now and I've wrote some iAppli; for games in particular, it's tough. The jar size has a 10k restriction (I kid you not), there is a really bizzare file you have to carefully write (called a .jam... yum) in order to download the applet, and the DoCoMo API is almost useful (I have some severe critisms of that, but I suspect it was rushed so what can you do?).

      The jar size is the most limiting factor. That 10k holds everything you don't want to d/l from the net while playing your game; class files, graphics, music, data; everything. If you choose to d/l your content from the net, that limits where you can play your game and (at least here in Japan where we are billed by the PACKET) can REALLY jack up your bill- most of the "commercial" games for iMode phones do this, and it gets super-annoying FAST (but even a few extra k really boost the experience).

      All this sounds dark, but it is so incredibly cool to play a game or use an app you've written while waiting for the train, that it's worth it. Well, sort of. ;)

  • I just got back from Japan last Fall, and
    had spent the last two years developing
    iMode applications.

    What's cool about iMode for me was:

    1) Google's iMode gateway - search Google, and
    it converts anything (including frames!) into
    cHTML pages in 5 kbyte chunks, with navigation
    links. I used to read Roger Ebert's movie reviews, on my phone on the train.

    2) cHTML is not WAP. You could write basic
    HTML pages and they would display on the
    phones. No syntax errors, no WML, no gateways
    barfing on you. It simply worked, just like
    the real web used to. It showed that
    WAP was completely unneccessary for
    accessing the web over small low bandwidth
    devices. Plain old forms work better than "cards",
    and encourage a more consistent user interface.

    3) Email -- the phone's email app was nicely
    integrated with the browser - you could read your mail and send it, real SMTP mail, and if you got
    a hyperlink in your email, you could click to follow it in your browser.

    4) iAppli -- you could write little Java
    apps that run in the phone, and can talk to
    the network via HTTP. Sound, animation,
    little scratchpad memory on the phone.

    5) Nice TFT color displays, FM synthesized polyphonic high quality sound.

    6) Latency to get pages was very low, maybe
    a few seconds the first time you hit a site,
    and then less than 2 seconds for each subsequent page.

    7) You could use plain GIF images in
    your pages. They didn't handle JPEG at that
    time though :-(

    Anyway, the thing simply worked. No fooling around
    with broken phones and broken emulators and
    incompatible protocols. NTT just leaned on the
    handset makers and made them comply with the
    (simple) standards.

    It is the direct opposite of the WAP situation in the US. WAP should just hurry up and die, and
    make room for something that works.

  • 1xRTT is a 3G technology as it offers current max speed of 153kbps and increased network capacity and battery life. It is an upgrade from the old CDMAone standard to CDMA 2000.

    Compare this to GPRS which is a 2.5G technology. It offers no other enhanced features to the system other than slightly faster data speeds. In order for GPRS to reach 1x speeds the carrier would have to dedicate 8 concatenated channels and turn off error correction. This is obviously not deployable in this form for real life situations.

    Also consider the future of each technology. Enhanced GPRS (EDGE) has a max speed of 384kbps and 1xEV-DO is about 2.4mbps.

  • 3G (Score:1)

    by Solokron ( 198043 )
    AT&T Wireless has had 2.5G in Seattle since late last year. We have been rolling out to major cities ever since. I have done several upgrades for 3G. It won't be long.

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