Singapore Telecom Mobile and Japan's DoCoMo have signed an agreement to jointly explore and develop 3G technology and multimedia services based on the W-CDMA standard. The agreement also extends to collaborative efforts in other areas of mobile communications such as wireless LAN. Mr Lucas Chow, Chief Executive Officer of SingTel Mobile and Executive Vice President (Consumer Business) of SingTel, hailed the signing of the agreement as a landmark for regional mobile communications.
"This is an important development for both SingTel Mobile and DoCoMo as we team up to facilitate the growth of 3G services in Asia. The collaboration will help us take a step towards addressing some of the key concerns regarding 3G such as evolving common standards, roaming issues and compatibility of handsets," said Mr Chow.
Dr Keiji Tachikawa, President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo, said: "We are extremely pleased to be collaborating with SingTel Mobile, Asia's leading multi-market mobile operator. We believe this partnership will help us expand W-CDMA-based 3G mobile multimedia services in Asia. Inter-operability is key to providing customers with seamless mobile multimedia services anytime, anywhere. This joint initiative will enable DoCoMo and SingTel Mobile to offer our respective customers value-added mobile multimedia services."
Under the agreement, both operators will aim for inter-operability between their respective 3G networks, thereby enabling the provision of 3G services for roamers between Singapore and Japan.
SingTel Mobile and DoCoMo will share their technological know-how to look into developing a common and compatible suite of 3G multimedia services. These will include video streaming, video conference, location-based services and other applications. To facilitate this, both operators will seek opportunities for synchronisation of handsets and for enabling an integrated product development environment. Joint studies and an exchange of employees between the two companies are being considered as well. SingTel and NTT DoCoMo will also jointly explore wireless LAN roaming opportunities including prospects for integrating 3G and wireless LAN services.
Mr Chow said: "We are very excited about this cooperation agreement and the potential benefits it can bring to our respective customers. SingTel Mobile will certainly share its experiences from this collaboration with SingTel Optus in Australia and our mobile associates in the region as well."
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