Vodafone K.K. (ボーダフォン株式会社) (to be changed into a new name and brand shortly), also known as Vodafone Japan and previously as J-Phone, was the Japanese subsidiary company of mobile phone operator Vodafone. On March 17, 2006 Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone K.K. to SoftBank for approximately 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approximately US$ 15.1 Billion). Vodafone K.K. (ボーダフォン株式会社), also known as Vodafone Japan, is the Japanese branch of mobile phone operator Vodafone. ... A mobile phone operator (also wireless carrier) is a telephone company that provides phone services for mobile phone subscribers. ... Vodafone Group plc (LSE: VOD, NYSE: VOD, FWB:VOD) is a British mobile phone operator headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, England, is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover, with equity interests in 26 countries and Partner Networks (networks in which it has no equity stake) in... SoftBank Corp. ...

On April 14, 2006 SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the name of the company will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar" company name and brand. SoftBank Corp. ...

Masayoshi Son is CEO and Representative Director of Vodafone K. K. Masayoshi Son Masayoshi Son (Japanese: 孫正義, Son, Masayoshi, Korean: 손정의, Son, Jung-eui, born August 11, 1957 in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan) is a Korean Japanese(韓国系日本人, 한국계 일본인) and the founder and current chief executive officer of Softbank Capital. ...

Technology

Vodafone Japan currently operates both PDC (Japanese 2G) and W-CDMA (UMTS 3G) networks. Vodafone Japan's 3G network is compatible with UMTS and supports transparent global roaming for existing UMTS subscribers from other countries outside Japan, but not for GSM subscribers. Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) is a 2G mobile phone standard developed and used exclusively in Japan. ... 2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology. ... W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a type of 3G cellular network. ... Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ... 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. ... Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ...

History

The company was originally founded in 1991 as the mobile phone division of Japan Telecom under the name Digital Phone (デジタルホン). J-Phone Co., Ltd. (J-フォン) was formed in 1999 by the merging of Digital Phone Group (DPG, 3 local companies) and Digital TU-KA Group (DTG, 6 local companies, not to be confused with TU-KA). Japan Telecom owned a stake of 45.1%. In October 2001, the British mobile phone group Vodafone increased its share to 66.7% of Japan Telecom and 69.7% of J-Phone. On October 1, 2003 the name of the company and the service brand was officially changed to Vodafone. On March 17, 2006 Vodafone Group announced it had agreed to sell its holding of Vodafone Japan (Vodafone K.K.) to Softbank for about 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approximately US$ 15.1 Billion). Actual completion of the LBO transaction will not be finalized until late April 2006 or so. On April 14, 2006 SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the name of the company will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar" company name and brand. 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Japan Telecom Co. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... KDDI Corporation is a Japanese telecommunication operator formed in October 2000 through the merger of DDI, KDD, and IDO Corp. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Vodafone Group plc (LSE: VOD, NYSE: VOD, FWB:VOD) is a British mobile phone operator headquartered in Newbury, Berkshire, England, is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world by turnover, with equity interests in 26 countries and Partner Networks (networks in which it has no equity stake) in... October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... SoftBank Corp. ... SoftBank Corp. ...

Services and market analysis

J-Phone has been growing steadily for a decade by continuously introducing new services and enhancements such as SkyWalker for PDC, SkyMelody ringtone download, the famous Sha-Mail picture mail introduced on the basis of camera phones developed by SHARP, the mobile multimedia data service J-Sky modeled after NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, and advanced Java services based on JSCL, which are modeled after NTT DoCoMo's Doja based i-Appli. Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) is a 2G mobile phone standard developed and used exclusively in Japan. ... Sha-Mail (写メール) is a kind of mailing service of J-Phone (now Vodafone Japan). ... A camera phone in use Camera phones are a type of cellphone which has a camera built in. ... Sharp Corporation (シャープ株式会社 Shāpu Kabushiki Kaisha) (TYO: 6753) is a Japanese electronics manufacturer, founded in 1912. ... NTT DoCoMo, Inc. ... i-mode advert on the London Underground NTT DoCoMos i-mode is a wireless Internet service popular in Japan and increasingly elsewhere. ... The Java Platform is the name for a computing environment, or platform, from Sun Microsystems which can run applications developed using the Java programming language and set of development tools. ... NTT DoCoMo, Inc. ... DoJa profile is Java environment specification for DoCoMos i-mode mobile phone. ...

Recently however, this trend has been reversed and Vodafone started losing customers: In January 2005 Vodafone Japan lost 58,700 customers and in February 2005 Vodafone Japan lost 53,200 customers (while competitors NTT DoCoMo won 184,400 customers and KDDI (au/KDDI) won 163,700 customers, and Willcom won 35,000). NTT DoCoMo, Inc. ... KDDI Corporation (TYO: 9433) is a Japanese telecommunication operator formed in October 2000 through the merger of DDI, KDD, and IDO Corp. ... WILLCOM (ウィルコム) is a Japanese PHS operator, which offers flat-rate wireless network and flat-rate mobile calling for it subscribers. ...

Vodafone changed the name of its multimedia data services from J-Sky to Vodafone live!, and used J-Sky's principles and technologies and business models to introduce Vodafone live! in Vodafone's other markets. Thus Vodafone live! has it's origin in J-Phone's J-Sky. Vodafone live!â„¢ is the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, which was initially developed by Japans J-Phone under the J-Sky brand. ...

Vodafone Japan recently changed the page description language of Vodafone live! to the WAP page description language. Vodafone live!â„¢ is the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, which was initially developed by Japans J-Phone under the J-Sky brand. ... Headline text ...

While as of February 2005, DoCoMo's FOMA 3G service has attracted 10 million subscribers, and KDDI's 3G service has attracted over 17 million subscribers, Vodafone's 3G service only attracted 527,300 subscribers. Vodafone-3G has not acquired many subscribers because Vodafone cut back investments in 3G services in Japan in 2002/3, and therefore handsets largely do not fully match needs and preferences of Japanese customers. FOMA, officially short for Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, is the brand name for the 3G services being offered by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo. ...

As of end February 2005, Vodafone Japan has 15.1 million customers, and by end of October 2005 the number of subscribers had fallen by 103,100 to 14.996 million, while during the same period NTT-DoCoMo had gained 1.65 million customers and KDDI/AU had gained 1.82 million customers.

As of end February 2005, Vodafone-Live! had 12.907 million subscribers in Japan, and by end of October 2005 the number of Vodafone-Live! subscribers had fallen by 138,000 to 12,769,600.

As of March 4, 2006, Vodafone are currently discussing the sale of their Vodafone Japan unit to Softbank in Japan. Vodafone has been unable to satisfy customers, as Japanese users tend to have preferences not seen in other markets. Handsets hadh user interfaces that differed too much from the Japanese interface, and did not have as much features as competing companies. This lead to losing many customers and dicided that it is no longer profitable. SoftBank Corp. ...

3G: As of end October 2005, NTT-DoCoMo has 17.6 million 3G customers, KDDI/AU has 19.8 million 3G customers, and Vodafone-Japan has 1.9 million 3G customers, i.e. Vodafone-Japan gained about 4.8% of Japan's 3G market. 3G (or 3-G) is short for third-generation technology. ...

Timeline

• 1991-07: Tokyo Digital Phone established
• 1994-04: J-Phone starts PDC cellular service in the 1.5 GHz band, 10 MHz bandwidth
• 1997-11: J-Phone launches SkyWalker SMS service designed by Aldiscon and Ericsson for PDC
• 1998-11: J-Phone launches SkyMelody ringtone download service
• 1999-12: J-Phone launches J-Sky wireless Internet service ten months after NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, which was launched in February 1999.
• 2000-11: J-Phone launches Sha-Mail (写メール) picture messaging service using the world's first camera phones developed by SHARP
• 2001-06: J-Phone launches Java service with JSCL library
• 2002-12: J-Phone launches W-CDMA 3G service the first time
• 2003-10: J-Phone company name is changed to Vodafone, and J-Sky name is changed to Vodafone live!. Vodafone launches a Japan-nationwide Beckham campaign
• 2004-10: Vodafone relaunches the 3G services in Japan a second time offering mobile phone handsets designed primarily for the European markets
• 2006-03-17: Vodafone officially announced it had agreed to sell Vodafone Japan (Vodafone KK) to Softbank for a total of 1.75 trillion Japanese yen (approx US$ 15.1 Billion) in one of the largest M&A transactions in Japan to date
• 2006-04-14: SoftBank and Vodafone K. K. jointly announced, that the name of the company will be changed to a "new, easy-to-understand and familiar" company name and brand. Masayoshi Son became CEO and Representative Director of Vodafone K. K.

A gigahertz is a billion hertz or a thousand megahertz, a measure of frequency. ... A megahertz (MHz) is one million (106) hertz, a measure of frequency. ... SoftBank Corp. ... Masayoshi Son Masayoshi Son (Japanese: 孫正義, Son, Masayoshi, Korean: 손정의, Son, Jung-eui, born August 11, 1957 in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan) is a Korean Japanese(韓国系日本人, 한국계 일본인) and the founder and current chief executive officer of Softbank Capital. ...

External links

• Vodafone Japan
• SoftBank KK