Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!telecom-request From: jimmy@tokyo07.info.com (Jim Gottlieb) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: User's Evaluation of Handheld Cellular: Fujitsu vs Motorola Message-ID: Date: 31 Mar 91 07:24:24 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan Lines: 38 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 262, Message 7 of 11 In article kddlab!lkbreth.foretune.co. jp!trebor@uunet.uu.net (Robert J Woodhead) writes: > The complaint is that the Japanese government closed it's market > to the Micro Tac, and then subsidized the creation of a competitor. The issue is very complicated. I never fully understood it until I read an article that explained the whole incident. Now I forget both where I read it and most of the details. But I thought I would point out a major difference in the cellular market here as compared to the U.S. In the U.S., one buys a cellular telephone on the free market and then must pick a carrier. The free market (and carrier kickbacks) keeps the price of equipment low, while the duopoly of cellular carriers in any given market forces the customer to be ripped off, with little real choice. Here in Japan, the duopoly extends to the equipment side. You don't see cellular phones being sold in stores here. Rather, you choose your cellular carrier (either NTT [the telco] or IDO in Tokyo), and they also rent you the telephone. You have very little selection. The NTT hand-held that most people carry around looks quite old-fashioned when comapred to what is sold in the U.S. NTT is now running a large campaign on T.V. and in the print media featuring Bruce Willis, announcing at least three new hand-held cellular phones. Japanese who have come to visit me when I'm in Los Angeles have been impressed with my Mitsubishi 900 hand-held, saying they've never seen such a nice-looking and small unit in Japan. The new NTT-offered sets will change this, but if I understand correctly, they could never offer the Motorola MicroTAC because Motorola's phones are not compatible with the NTT system. I bet if Motorola were a Japanese company, rather than cry to the government about there being no cellular systems in Tokyo compatible with their equipment, they would have seen to it to build compatible telephones.