KDDI Mobile - KDDI to launch US MVNO, stop the presses!

KDDI, Japan's number two cellphone carrier, totally blew our minds, everybody: they stated today that they'll be starting up an MVNO on Sprint in the US, name: KDDI Mobile. What's the point of yet another MVNO? (We're obligated to ask.) Well, besides giving Helio a run for their money in the Asian-carrier-gone-US-MVNO biz, maybe, just maybe we'll finally see a slew of totally slick and unbelievably well designed Japanese featurephones stateside (see above). Unfortunately, it sounds like they want to cater to Japanese expats in the US (are there really that many?); either way we definitely just got the warm n' fuzzies.

[js @ Apr 8th 2007 2:17PM]

iPhones, FTW!!!

[kingofwale @ Apr 8th 2007 2:40PM]

I hope they know what they are doing. US customers won't change cellphone every 6 months like the Japanese customers. they better have some good services to back it up.

those phones are cool, but probably too colourful for US mainstream.

who knows, maybe US teens are rich enough to support it. ;)

[Jeff @ Apr 8th 2007 2:57PM]

Those phones are no more colorful than most of the Razr line, and I don't think anyone would argue that that line hasn't been successful.

Regardless, the article does say KDDI's aiming for Japanese customers in the US. And yeah, there are a lot of them (around 500,000 in the New York City area alone at any given time, and the west coast and Hawaii has even more).

But I don't think just the name KDDI is going to entice them. It sounds like the phones are going to be regular Sprint network CDMA phones, which would mean they won't work in Japan. If they came out with phones that would work in both countries, that'd really be a major coup and would definitely appeal to those shuttling between the US and Japan - *nobody* has a phone like that right now. (So-called "world phones" work pretty much everywhere *but* Japan.) Although it will mean less over time; from what I've read, we'll have UMTS2100 networks here fairly soon.

They're also going to need some more advanced phones and services like KDDI has in Japan, and Sprint's network is just not going to support some of those things.

[Charly @ Apr 8th 2007 10:10PM]

Jeff: My HTC Universal works fine here in Japan.

[ejohnst @ Apr 9th 2007 12:36AM]

UMTS 2100 works quite nicely. My SE K610i, which I use regularly on T-Mobile here in the US, was pretty much pegged at 5 bars and displayed a novel little 3G icon the whole time I was in Tokyo.

[Jordan @ Apr 8th 2007 3:16PM]

No one get your hopes up. They already have a KDDI Mobile website up. It's in Japanese but here's the English translation:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.kddimobile.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dkddi%2Bmobile%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3D12w%26sa%3DG

Their phones are suckier than Sprint's cheapest handsets. They're catering almost exclusively to Japanese expats. This is nothing like how Helio is focusing on cool new technology for the young crowd. This is just a cheap MVNO, no cool handsets or services.

[Bluevoter @ Apr 8th 2007 3:21PM]

This idea looks doomed to fail if they try to compete in English instead of Japanese. Why would someone build cool-looking phones for the non-standard CDMA network? At least with GSM, they would be following the rest of the world (other than the US and Korea), and reflecting the pending switch to GSM in Japan. But if they use some of the cool Korean phones, that would be a step up from the current situation.

[shimman @ Apr 8th 2007 3:48PM]

i don't know...i had really bad experiences with those japanese domestic market phones as if they were made to be replaced in every 6 months.

there were more than enough annoyances not addressed at all & the attitude of the phone makers were not helping either. my request for support was denied with a kind reply of "discontinued"

btw, they may look flash, but they are bit cheesy, too, but more the merrier, right ;)

[calvin @ Apr 8th 2007 4:34PM]

those phones are nice. way better than my old phone. i'd definitly be satisfied with one of them (moreso the one on the bottom left corner), but in my opinion the docomo phones are more appealing.

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/index.html

903iTV phones *drool*

[Liam McNulty @ Apr 8th 2007 5:44PM]

Jeff hit the nail on the head. KDDI Mobile certainly isn't offering phones here in the US that are up to Japanese standards -- a quick look at their homepage reveals they currently offer only two last-gen handsets... neither of which appear to support Japanese. The page does say that they'll be adding handsets with Japanese capabilities in the future.

It's evident that this isn't KDDI's "full-blown" entry into the US mobile market. As the article says, the phone service itself is being provided by Sprint/Nextel. There are a bunch of technical limitations that would prevent KDDI from offering virtually all of the additional features that are offered on au/EZweb in Japan.

But the homepage also says that international calls to landlines (not mobiles) in Japan are included in the service minutes. So it's not a bad deal if you don't mind

[PreGHz @ Apr 8th 2007 6:35PM]

I hate Sprint.
But I love KDDI au.

Why lord, why? Why tease me so? If KDDI launches any phone that is actually current in the Japanese market (such as their Media Skin line), I will switch immediately. Or at least get a prepaid phone from them.

[MinceyFresh @ Apr 8th 2007 6:57PM]

It looks like kddimobile.com (in English) is up and running. Wow. I'm disappointed. I was expecting to be bombarded with the SUPER HAPPY MOBILE FUN TIME vibes that I get when I look at actual Japanese mobile websites, but... the LG 225 and the Sanyo 2400 are all they currently offer. (-_-) sigh...

Uh... I mean, at least the FlipKick and Hero kinda *looked* foreign. Well, maybe when KDDI Mobile's on the market for a little longer they'll finally start bringing some phones here that scream KEITAI. I just hope they don't embarass themselves like NTT-DoCoMo did when they tried to set up shop in the US...

[MinceyFresh @ Apr 8th 2007 7:18PM]

I just clicked around their FAQs and noticed two things we should take note of: This company IS NOT "au by KDDI." I guess they're both owned by KDDI (the telecom company), but I think we'll all be disappointed if we expect to get anything like au's MOMA-worthy mobile phone lineup in the US...

We'll see, though... Maybe KDDI can slap some sense into Kyocera and get them to bring their foreign designs here...

[Z @ Apr 8th 2007 7:40PM]

Now they just need to start one for T-Mobile.

[Marcus @ Apr 8th 2007 7:56PM]

I don't think I'd like any of the above pictured phones...I won't get anything other than a candybar/slider, but that's just personal preference...

It is nice to hear though, as hopefully this will make the market more competitive, and lower prices. One thing I wondered, is that...is it just me, or do all MVNO's seem to hop onto non-GSM carriers? Why is that?

[Calvin @ Apr 8th 2007 7:59PM]

I see some Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Pantech look-a-likes.

[Kellen @ Apr 8th 2007 10:37PM]

What is MVNO? I am constantly at a loss when reading this website, engadget you never explain the acronyms! If I were truly on the cutting edge of cell phones, I wouldn't really need to check this website for updates. So please inform me of what the acronym stands for, you really only need to do it once, otherwise I just feel alienated as a reader and ignore any future post with the unknown acronym.

[Ed @ Apr 9th 2007 10:04AM]

It is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. Sets up its own pricing plans and virtual network riding over and existing cellular network infrastructure, normally that of an existing Mobile Network Operator (MNO).

[Vince @ Apr 8th 2007 10:52PM]

MVNO is a pretty standard acronym on tech focused sites like engadget, and probably doesn't need to be repeated ad infinitum. So for those times when you're feeling at a loss, I recommend google or wikipedia. They are always there with the explanation you need, when you need it. *smile*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MVNO

[Scott @ Apr 9th 2007 12:08AM]

I lived in Japan for the past 3 years and would have to say my 2 year old phone kicks anything here in the states currently. It'd be great if we had anywhere near the quality of phones they have over there...I guess we'd have to start with a new network though as ours here...still...suck!

[Uranium @ Apr 9th 2007 1:18AM]

It would be nice if we had access to working Japanese phone models here. Too bad it looks like they might be standard CDMA models on Sprint (yawn).

[hoeun kim @ Apr 9th 2007 5:23AM]

even if they were to bring japanese domestic market(jdm), also kdm for that matter, it wouldnt have all the functionalities its built for. we just dont have the infrastructure to support all the features that they all have in their respective markets

[Jamar @ Apr 9th 2007 7:39AM]

EVDO Rev. A? Check (at least now we do)
E-mail? Check
Internet? Check
Music and video downloading? Check
GPS? Check (isn't that what e911 was all about?)
FeliCa? OK, we don't have that but it can be done (we do have an equivalent in trials right now)
Digital TV? We don't use One-Seg (and we probably won't ever) but we do have it
Video calling (introduced on au with EVDO Rev. A)? OK, we don't have that either- but we can and should, since it's just packet data and Rev. A gives enough bandwidth to do that.
Summary? We don't have everything exactly as Japan doesn but we have equivalents for most of them- and the other functions are enough, really.

[jimgirardi @ Apr 9th 2007 12:35PM]

YES!!! I had AU (KDDI) when I was in Japan... some of the best phones in the world. DoCoMo might be better but their network is totally incompatible. AU is CDMAone so that makes it easer I guess. YAY!!! AU in the US!! FINALLY!

[としえ @ Apr 9th 2007 6:00PM]

Um, Nice KDDI is putting a service here in america, but I in my heart, really really DOUBT that they are going to supply some handsets good as the ones in japan, but hey who knows, but thats just me.

[T-girl @ Apr 10th 2007 5:30AM]

Are they going to have a content menu like in Japan offering on-line content?


(am a content provider in Japan and wondering if it is worth trying to get on the US menu?)

[Jamar @ Apr 10th 2007 7:12AM]

Yes (as far as I can tell). They're trying to sell content that is familiar to Japanese people (they're selling to Japanese residents of the US) so they may be open to your inclusion in their US-based content menu.

[dave @ Apr 10th 2007 10:56PM]

from what i've heard, KDDI america is only starting out with 2 low-end headsets, and one of them is an LG (not even japanese.) so don't get excited.

also, the LG that they're gonna have, the PM225, is a flip version of the horror phone PM325 that i've had (and hated) for almost 2 years now and was forced to use for almost a year and a half. and the sanyo they have is a cheapy run-of-the-mill SCP2400, so this doesn't cater towards gadgetphiles, it caters towards low and middle-income people who are familiar with the KDDI name. hopefully KDDI will change that and release every KDDI au phone out there in the US, because then they'll have everyone except maybe helio cornered in the crazy gadget race.

[pheer6224 @ Apr 10th 2007 11:14PM]

beats the crap out of helio, but I wanna see DoCoMo around here.