DoCoMo prepares to roam

DoCoMo's Takeshi Natsuno already indicated in a recent interview that global roaming for its 3G FOMA service is on the cards for late this year, and now DoCoMo and Renesas have announced they're to develop a low-power consumption chip that incorporates both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS. The aim is apparently to lower the cost of DoCoMo's FOMA handsets and boost standby time. They also list "increasing the popularity" of the handsets as an aim, which we suppose is a roundabout way of saying that international compatibility should hook a few extra customers (though we we doubt global roaming is all that high on most people's wish list when they’re phone shopping). Maybe DoCoMo's evil plan is to have its posse of manufacturers ship loads of cool Japanese dual-mode handsets overseas and then use the installed base to persuade vacillating 2G carriers that they can't not roll out W-CDMA, but who can say. Manufacturers should be pleased if they don't have to develop entirely different phones for different markets, though.

[Update: Nikkei Electronics Asia has an article that specifically states the aim of the chip as "promoting the global use of FOMA services"; again, an ambiguous phrase, but it sounds like DoCoMo is once again preparing to get global on your ass.]

[Update2: Turns out DoCoMo's doing the same with Texas Instruments, too (K-Tai Watch). Looks like they may be going for the tactic of establishing W-CDMA superiority through cool handsets, which is after all what they're best at]

[Via K-Tai Watch (Japanese)]

[Crossposted to Engadget]