Internet
Nintendo Co Ltd, NTT East Corp and NTT West Corp (NTT East/West) have officially announced that they will jointly promote the connection of NTT East/West's optical fiber to the home (FTTH) service, FLET'S Hikari, and Nintendo's Wii. Nintendo places Wii's current Internet access ratio at about 40%, which is lower than the broadband penetration of over 50%. Under the agreement, the companies will open a joint call center and offer FTTH line installation in tandem with Wii setup for Internet access.
Mobile/Wireless
eMobile Ltd. will start offering Japanese wireless subscribers a fast fixed price data service by December. The new service has been described as allowing downloads at a rate of 7.2 megabytes per second using the so-called high-speed down-link packet access (HSDPA) technology. Earlier in March when it started its 3G service, eMobile offered a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps. The company is a subsidiary of eAccess, Japan's third largest Internet service provider.
Hardware
Sharp Corp will increase the thin-film Si (silicon) solar cell output at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara Prefecture from the present 15MW per year to 160MW per year by October 2008. The company said the investment in the project is estimated at some Ñ22 billion ($198 million). Sharp is currently mass-producing tandem and triple thin-film solar cells in parallel at the Katsuragi Plant.
Semiconductors
Toshiba Corp. and NEC Electronics Corp. said they have decided to jointly develop 32-nanometer chips but have yet to agree on the details of their joint production. Industry observers see the move of Toshiba and NEC as a response to market competition and the performance of rivals such as IBM, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., Infineon Technologies, STMicroelectronics, Samsung and Freescale Semiconductor. Toshiba and NEC plan to mass produce 45-nanometer or 40-nanometer chips by early 2009. The two companies reportedly approached Fujitsu Ltd. to join the group. Fujitsu hasn't commented on the matter.
Tokyo Electron (TEL), a supplier of semiconductor and FPD production equipment, and Integrated Materials, a developer of poly silicon furnace fixtures solutions, announced a plan to jointly promote their furnace systems and SiFusion furnace consumables. Under the agreement, TEL will appoint IMI as a strategic supplier making IMI products its preferred furnace consumables. It also has an exclusive right to use IMIÆs SiFusion poly silicon furnace consumables for LPCVD Poly applications. It is expected that IMIÆs SiFusion products will enable customers to improve TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) by reducing preventive maintenance (PM) cycles, and cleaning costs, while increasing furnace availability.
Telecommunications
NTT Communications (NTT Com) and Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), a Vietnamese telecom operator, have agreed to form a joint-venture company in Hanoi in early January 2008. The company, referred to as Global Data Service Joint Stock Company, will provide data centre services and will make NTT Com and VNPT among the first operators to provide said services in Vietnam. The data centres are expected to provide collocation and hosting services. The announcement also said that NTT Communications (Vietnam) and VNPT will work together to provide one-stop services covering networks, system integration and information security. NTT Com will take a 40% stake in the new venture, while VNPT will own 60%.
Information Technology
Sony Corp, Gourmet Navigator Inc, Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd (DNP), Mitsui & Co Ltd and Tanseisha Co Ltd have entered into an agreement to establish a joint company, FeliCa Pocket Marketing, for FeliCa contactless IC cards in January 2008. Under the agreement, Sony will provide 60% of the capital for the new company to promote the use of FeliCa Pocket contactless IC card. The card has many different functions such as point card, coupons, membership, payment and stamp rally capabilities. The new company will also lease FeliCa Pocket terminals to member companies, as well as analyse and offer necessary marketing information in exchange for a service fee. With the agreement, the new company will have FeliCa Pocket terminals at more than 10,000 stores. The company aims to issue more than 2 million cards over the next three years and has a sales goal of Ñ2 billion ($18 million) for the first three years.
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