First 802.11b mobile out January
This has us all excited: Japanese ISP Livedoor is releasing an 802.11b-only mobile phone at the end of December. According to the company's website it can be used with any 802.11b WLAN. Using public hotspots will mean paying where necessary in the usual way (we wonder if you're forced to put a username and password into the phone each time, or what).
We are inclined to get our hands on one of these soon, assuming that the battery life is tolerable (the promotional pics all feature the phone in a charger cradle, which makes us nervous). Our enthusiasm stems partly from the low pricing: Y370 per month plus Y7.5 for 3 minutes anywhere in Japan, Y20 per minute to call a cellphone, and Y8 per minute to the US; calls to other IP phones are free. You can also receive calls from other fixed-line/wireless/IP phones. OK, we expect low pricing from IP phones, but you can carry this around and brag to your friends about it.
The handsets themselves will apparently cost somewhere in the high-Y20,000 range, roughly the same as most cellphones here. We are only slightly deterred by what we might charitably describe as the retro styling.
K-Tai Watch (Japanese)
Posted by aragoto at December 10, 2003 03:11 PM | TrackBackwe are building WLAN wi-fi ecosystems in rural Bangladesh. If this phones come up we will be very much interested to test them out here.
Posted by: Imran Rasheed on December 17, 2003 12:09 AM