JapanCommunications
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Amazon offers prepaid 4G LTE data in Japan, gets you online 500MB at a time
Amazon has decided that offering 3G-capable Kindles isn't enough of an involvement in the cellular world -- it's now getting into the business of offering the bits themselves. Through a tie-up with NTT DoCoMo-using MVNO Japan Communications, Amazon is selling prepaid SIM cards for LTE data. Each slice of plastic and circuitry will provide a 500MB block of sweet, sweet 4G for ¥1,980 ($25). There's a very good chance we'd burn through that in a day, but it'll let you get an NTT DoCoMo-ready smartphone or Arrows Tab online in a pinch. The Japanese can snap up the cards later in the month, while those of us in the US will just have to hope that Amazon can make a similar (if hopefully cheaper) deal closer to home.
HP to sell contract-free, WWAN-equipped PCs in Japan
In a presumed effort to shake up the Japanese wireless industry and provide consumers with 3G-equipped PCs that aren't tied to multi-year contracts, Hewlett-Packard has quietly announced a deal with Japan Communications that will allow its machines to be sold with SIM cards that can be used on a pay-as-you-go basis. For those unaware, JCI leases network space from NTT DoCoMo, and as part of the agreement, HP will not only get to choose which devices can connect, but it'll get to keep a nice slice of the mobile data revenue as well. Here's the crazy part: the initial wave of netbooks will be sold for between $50 and $100 sans contract. That's about what users pay in America now for subsidized WWAN-ready netbooks, but there's a two-year contract tagging along. If all goes well, we could even see full-sized laptops, smartphones and digital cameras hop on the same bandwagon, but for now, we'll be keenly watching how brisk sales are when things kick off next month.
Japan Communications launches new MVNO with hardware freedom
Japanese MVNOs aren't exactly novel concepts, but Japan Communications has an angle for its new virtual network that most don't: an interconnect agreement. The deal with provider NTT DoCoMo differentiates it with so-called wholesale MVNOs in that these guys will actually own some of their own infrastructure to hook into the network, which in turn gives them the freedom to offer whatever hardware they choose without NTT's explicit permission to do so. They're really playing up that angle, too, coming out of the gate swinging with a ZTE-sourced broadband dongle -- not exactly the stuff of handset dreams, but they're looking to offer a who's-who of smartphone wares in the future, culminating with a possibly Android offering down the road. Theoretically, that could end up making Japan Communications the first Japanese carrier with an Android set in its midst, but with NTT DoCoMo a charter member of the Open Handset Alliance, the odds are pretty slim.[Via IntoMobile, image via ITpro]
