To enter Japan’s 3G phone market and expand its worldwide market share, Motorola Japan has inked a development agreement with Japan's largest mobile network operator NTT DoCoMo Inc.

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Together, the partners plan to develop business phones based on the Japanese 3G freedom of mobile multimedia access or FOMA specifications. The aim is to introduce the handsets based on FOMA by early next year. Since FOMA is based on wideband CDMA air interface technology, and is compatible with GSM/GPRS networks, the FOMA models can be used in countries outside Japan, according to the developers. In addition, unlike NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode phones, the new handsets will enable access to the Internet via mopera or any other available internet connection service. Furthermore, its browser will be able to display standard web pages, and it will be compatible with public wireless LAN services offered by NTT DoCoMo and other providers, enabling users in hotspots to enjoy high-speed Internet access at fixed rates.

The model will support Bluetooth connectivity for remote control via a laptop or PDA for dial-up to the Internet, or for convenient hands-free operation using a headset. In addition, the phone will be compatible with personal information management (PIM).

"NTT DoCoMo is delighted to team with Motorola to develop an advanced FOMA handset that meets the special needs of business users, which differ from those of general users," said NTT DoCoMo's Executive Vice President Kei-ichi Enoki."In particular, the phone can connect to public high-speed wireless LAN networks to browse the internet and receive e-mail. It also opens a variety of attached documents in their original formats and even works on mobile networks outside Japan,” he added.

This comes on the heels of recent joint development agreements announced by NTT DoCoMo with Texas Instruments Inc. and Renesas Technology Corp., a joint semiconductor venture of Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. In collaboration with TI, the two will develop an integrated universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) digital baseband and applications processor-based on TI's OMAP 2 architecture and NTT DoCoMo's W-CDMA technology for NTT DoCoMo handsets and other 3G handsets worldwide. Additionally, the agreement will include development and testing of power management, RF and protocol software that will be made available as system solutions to TI's worldwide customer base. To be manufactured using TI's 90nm technology, this new UMTS solution will be the first to integrate TI's OMAP 2 applications processor with a digital baseband. Likewise, Renesas and NTT DoCoMo will jointly develop a single-chip LSI for dual-mode handsets for 3G W-CDMA and 2G GSM/GPRS, with the aim of promoting the global use of FOMA services. Toward that goal, the two companies will combine W-CDMA technology developed by NTT DoCoMo with Renesas’ LSI fabrication, multimedia application processor, and GSM/GPRS technologies, to achieve single-chip implementation. The two partners plan to have a solution ready in the first half of fiscal 2006. Renesas Technology will collaborate with NTT DoCoMo to offer handset manufacturers a platform based on the new LSI. Renesas Technology also plans to provide this single-chip LSI for the UMTS market.