New Japan carrier, new Windows Mobile handheld

Today sees a new carrier enter Japan's gorillapolistic cellphone market; eMobile, the cellular subsidiary of ADSL infrastructure company eAccess, is sliding in with a data-only HSDPA service that'll start this March and grow a voice element in 2008.

For the moment, they're offering one standalone Windows Mobile 5 gadget, the Sharp EM ONE, which looks to be a remix of the WinMob units Sharp's provided to Willcom thus far; it sports Bluetooth 1.2, 802.11b/g, OneSeg digital TV support, a 4.1-inch wide-VGA screen, and a "dual-slider" keyboard that can expose either the full QWERTY goods HTC-style or simply a directional/enter key, as desired. It will support voice calls once the network does, and it looks like Skype can fill in some of the gap for the meantime. (The remainder of the current range are CF/Express Card/USB devices for laptop use.)

Service costs run about Y5,980 per month before discounts, with the initial cost for an EM ONE determined by whether you opt to remain unfettered by contractual obligations (Y95,000), or go for a one-year contract (Y71,000) or two years (Y39,800).

Voice services will be supported in their initial phases by a roaming arrangement with NTT DoCoMo to provide nationwide coverage; it's not entirely clear at present how extensive eMobile's own network is.

[Via K-Tai Watch (Japanese)]