Internet
ò Industry sources said more than 100 Japanese cities with a combined population of 50 million will get mesh broadband service in a massive network rollout from NTT West and Strix Systems. The network will operate in the 4.9 to 5.0 GHz frequency and provide broadband service to corporate enterprises and municipalities, with some spectrum to be allocated for use by public safety and emergency services. The deployment will utilize Strix's Access/One Network Outdoor Wireless System (OWS) and its Indoor Wireless System (IWS) to deliver wireless voice, video and data services. The installation will also be supported by design and maintenance services supplied by Network Value Components.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
ò Nielsen NetRatings announced the launching of its online advertising measurement service, AdRelevance, in Japan. Initial results show a market worth 19.2 billion yen ($161.5 million) for display ads in September, with beauty the highest spending sector and Vodafone-Softbank the top advertiser. The report said around 3,000 online display ad campaigns were run in September, consisting of almost 6,500 banners from 1,254 advertisers. Total monthly ad impressions reached 29.5 billion. The total market value is about one fifth that for the U.S, which in September registered $771 million and over three times that for China ($51 million). The company recently launched its spider-based online display advertising monitoring service in Australia and China. AdRelevance supports full online ad planning, management and evaluation process through the delivery of e-mail alerts for news ads and campaigns as well as daily updated information that includes impressions, expenditure and a capture of the ad creative itself. The biggest spending Japanese sectors in September were beauty and the food industry. The financial securities and investment sector was third by a greater margin.
Hardware
ò Maxell announced its plan to terminate production of DVD recordable media in its current plant in Japan, and indicated that it will transfer the production to other countries. The company plans to complete the transition to the new manufacturing plants by the spring of 2007. Maxell said that the new plants will take advantage of the extensive quality control standards set by the current Japanese R&D department, in order to offer high quality DVD recordable media. Maxell will continue to develop and produce optical media in its Recording Research Laboratory in Tsukuba, Japan, although the department will focus on the development of next generation optical storage media (BD and HD DVD).
ò Sony Corp disclosed its move to cut its profit outlook by 62 percent because of battery recall costs and a larger loss of its game unit. The revision follows a series of setbacks for the electronics giant, including recalls of about eight million Sony-made computer batteries by big computer makers and a delay in the European launch of its forthcoming video game console, PlayStation 3. Sony said it will set aside 51 billion yen ($429.1 million) for costs related to the battery recalls, which it will book in the second quarter to last month. The company said its net profit posted a 93 percent decline to 2 billion yen ($16.8 million) in the quarter from 28.5 billion yen ($239.8 million) a year earlier, a 93 percent decline. Sony cut its operating profit target for the year to March to 50 billion yen ($420.7 million) from its July estimate of 130 billion yen ($1 billion). The company lowered its PSP shipment target for the year to March by 25 percent to 9 million units. In another development, rival game maker Nintendo earlier this month raised the sales target of its DS portable game machines to 20 million units from 17 million for this business year.
Ventures/Investments
ò Toshiba announced its, plans to issue 400 billion yen ($3.4 billion) worth of bonds to fund its purchase of Westinghouse. The company said the funds will be also be used for other expansion. Earlier this month, Toshiba said it would take a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse, the US power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels, in a deal valued at $4.1 billion. Toshiba issued a forecast that its nuclear business would more than quadruple by 2020 following its acquisition of Westinghouse.
Korea
Internet
ò LG PowercommÆs CEO, denied any plans to acquire Hanaro Telecom nor Onse Telecom's broadband business, stating that an M&A is more likely to fail than succeed. Since initiating the broadband service, LG Powercomm has been able to add 1 million subscribers in about a year. The company said that its total subscribers could reach 1.5 million as early as the first quarter of 2007; a situation that the company said would enable it to return to profit. LG Powercomm said it plans to provide a triple play service (TPS) by providing VoIP early next year and IPTV starting the second half of 2007.
ò KT announced that it will be launching a VoIP service that will provide video calls by the end of this year. The VoIP phone that KT plans to introduce will have a 3.5-inch LCD screen and will be priced at between W200,000 ($209) and W300,000 ($313). KT said it aims to penetrate the household VoIP market with its new service. The company plans to start aggressive marketing of video VoIP once it is launched, initially targeting its existing Megapass users, with the company vowing to offer competitive tariff rates in the beginning to ensure that a market for video VoIP is built. Industry experts estimate the VoIP market to reach around W100 billion ($104 million) this year, with KT holding one third of this market share.
ò SK Communications Co., South Korea's leading online community operator, announced its acquisition of a 24.4 percent stake in local portal engine Empas.com for W37.2 billion ($33.9 million). With the acquisition, SK Communications, the provider of the Cyworld community service, became the largest shareholder in the internet portal and search engine. SK Communications, a unit of top mobile carrier SK Telecom, said it plans to buy an additional W45 billion ($47.0 million) worth of convertible bonds of Empas, raising its stake to up to 43 percent. Cyworld is the nation's largest community service with some 18 million people running their blog-style homepages on the site, which uploads photos, comments and other multimedia content. The announcement comes as SK Communications is accelerating its push for overseas markets. With the deal, industry observers see SK Communications making its entry into the search engine market. Other companies running major portal services such as Naver and Daum have the search technology, but not the content, and have been creating new services recently in order to remedy that. SK's acquisition of Empas may put Cyworld and Nate in competition with the big portals. Before the acquisition, there had been rumors about Google or CJ Internet buying Empas because of is unique ôopen searchö technology.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
ò NCsoft announced the availability of a new retail package for its premier player-versus-player (PvP) massively multiplayer online PC game, Lineage II, in stores across North America. Lineage II: The Epic Collection is a special edition retail package which, for the first time, includes the original game plus all five expansions in one box. Also included in this unique, limited edition DVD set is a total of 45 days of game time, behind the scenes video footage, and a special in-game character mask only available to those who purchase æThe Epic CollectionÆ. æLineage II: The Epic CollectionÆ is available in North American retailers and at the PlayNC online store for an estimated street price of $29.9. Lineage II, which launched in April 2004, has a worldwide customer base of more than 14 million.
Mobile/Wireless
ò Wi-Bro wireless internet technology, or Mobile WiMAX, is expected to become an official 3G-service area in the global market, boosting its position in the next-generation wireless standard area. Among 3G wireless communication standards (IMT2000) approved by ITU are WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-CDMA, UWC-136 and DECT. The US is seeking to add Wi-Bro to the existing five standards, and official adoption comes with the allocation of additional spectrums used for wireless communication. This means that KT will be allowed 2.5GHz spectrums to build a Wi-Bro roaming belt. Industry experts are saying that the adoption of wireless technology is expected to have an influence on 4G wireless technologies and next-generation Wi-Bro, or Wi-Bro Evolution.
Telecommunications
ò KoreaÆs Ministry of Information and Communication announced that it would set guidelines for the bundling of local calls. Under the ruling, KT, as the dominant carrier, will have to receive pre-approval of tariff rates for its bundled products. The government will then decide on whether the discount rate is acceptable. KT has reportedly asked for a 10 percent discount to bundled service subscribers even if the MIC is seen as allowing only a smaller discount.
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