While the rest of the world is looking at 3GPP Release 8 as part of Long Term Evolution,Senior Manager of International PR at DoComo, Shuichiro Ichikoshi, is working  hard to express the trends in Japan.   First of all, while the rest of the world is trying to figure out when to deploy what they are calling LTE (aka 3GPP Rel 8) , Docomo claims it will have LTE deployed at the end of this year.  NTT DoCoMo  has already managed to transmit data at close to 5G bps to a receiver moving at 10 kilometers per hour using 4G technology.  However, the testing of LTE is undefined and internal at this moment.

In the land, where cool apps were the start of a revolution, and where a  number of devices that are cool and web enabled from the get go, the iPhone is not that cool.  Why?  First of all the alphabet keyboard capability is not important to those countries where Kanjei characters are quicker in the menu than a spelling correcting alphabet solution.  Secondly, other than the touch screen, the applications are just as compelling via iMode.

Bottom line, the Japanese are still leading the way toward our broadband future.