Ministry urges Rakuten Mobile to speed up preparation of base stations ahead of Japan rollout
The communications ministry has instructed Rakuten Mobile Inc. to speed up its rollout of base stations, with the mobile operator slated to launch its service in Japan on Oct. 1, it was learned on Thursday. The oral instruction was issued on July 17. As of ...
Japan's Rakuten swings to quarterly loss on Lyft and mobile service
Rakuten Inc. reported an unexpected quarterly loss Thursday, hit by the depressed value of its investment in ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. and heavy spending on a new wireless service. The company said it booked a ¥1.8 billion operating loss in the April-June quarter compared with ...
In smartphone era, flip phones finding second life among elderly Japanese
The smartphone may have the dominant position in the marketplace, but old-school flip phones, or garakei, are finding a second life among elderly Japanese because of their low cost and ease of use. Shops handling used garakei are visited by many people looking for handsets ...
Mobile phone carriers KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. has said that they will sell a new smartphone model made by Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. The move, announced Monday, ends months of delays in the product's release by major Japanese mobile operators who ...
T-Mobile likely to secure U.S. antitrust approval for Sprint takeover deal
T-Mobile U.S. Inc. is set to win U.S. antitrust approval for its takeover of Sprint Corp. on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter, moving the wireless carriers a step closer to completing a deal that has been more than a year ...
Samsung Electronics flags 56% fall in second-quarter operating profit
Samsung Electronics said Friday it expects operating profit to tumble 56 percent for the second quarter of this year in the face of a weakening chip market. The world's largest maker of smartphones and memory chips has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a ...
Japan restricts exports of chip and smartphone materials to South Korea
The move is in response to South Korean court orders for Japanese companies to pay compensation over forced wartime labor.
Line unveils credit scoring, an AI receptionist and other new services
Line Corp. has unveiled new services, from credit scoring to an AI-powered robot receptionist, as the operator of Japan's dominant messaging platform seeks to expand beyond chat. Line Score will rate users based on information they provide as well as their interactions with other services ...
Japan plans phone relay service for those with impaired hearing, catching up with rest of G7
The government plans to launch a telephone relay service to enable people with hearing disabilities to chat online via sign language, government officials said Thursday. Japan will be the last of the Group of Seven advanced countries to launch such a service for people who ...
U.S. tariffs on China-made consumer tech goods seen cutting sales and delaying upgrades
U.S. consumers will delay or forgo technology upgrades if President Donald Trump imposes a new round of 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, slowing the U.S. innovation engine, technology industry executives said on Monday. Trump's administration is preparing to levy tariffs on an additional $300 ...
Tokyo's Board of Education said Thursday it has decided to allow students at metropolitan junior high and high schools to bring their mobile electronic devices, including smartphones, to school. For elementary and junior high schools run by cities and other municipalities in the capital, the ...
Ministry plan will see Japan's mobile phone carriers slash cancellation fees in fall
Under the approved plan, major mobile phone operators will be obliged to cut cancellation charges by 90 percent to ¥1,000 or less.
