Japan trumps the U.S. in technology yet again! Japan is developing a new high-speed network for cell phones that will use VoIP for phone calls which can be transmitted more cheaply, thus saving the mobile carriers money, while also making it less expensive for Japanese mobile users.

The government plans to introduce mobile Voice over Internet telephony by 2007, officials said yesterday. The Internet Protocol mobile phones are expected to relay information at up to 15 megabits per second which is more than a thousand times faster than the fastest 3G cell phones now available in Japan (384 kilobits/s). Part of the reason may be the explosion of mobile VoIP services that allow the Japanese to connect their cell phones to the Internet at "hot spots" using Wi-Fi wireless access. Unlike the U.S., Japan has plenty of hybrid mobile phones that support both wireless cell networks and WiFi, as well as applications such as Skype.

Well, at least the U.S.-made XBox 360 will be out before the Japanese-made Playstation 3. B)

Personal Side Note: Japanese mobile phone users have many more "choices" than the United States. Americans always brag about having the most choices due to our democracy. After all, having choices is the very nature of a democracy, right? I guess the experimental installation of a democracy in Japan over 50 years ago that nobody thought would work didn't turn out so bad after all.