Telecommunications

February 2005

Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.has announced that it has developed a tiny, direct-hydrogen fuel cell for cellular phones. Most R&D on cell-phone fuel cells focuses on types that use methane as the fuel source, but these devices suffer from low power output. Direct-hydrogen fuel cells have higher power output, which means they can be built smaller and still provide the same performance as a methane-type fuel cell NTT has built a prototype that weights 104 grams, measures 4.2 x 8cm and is only 1.3cm thick. The device is larger than the lithium-ion battery typically built into a cell phone, but it can power nine hours of talk time, compared to the normal two hours NTT plans to have a practical version of its new fuel cell ready in two to three years
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, February 23, 2005)

NTT DoCoMo Inc. has said it will stop accepting new subscribers for its prepaid mobile phone services by the end of March in the face of a growing number of such phones being used in crimes. Prepaid cellphones under existing contracts can be used for the time being, but the company plans to terminate the prepaid mobile phone services after a transitional period of two to three years, company officials said. The nation's largest cellphone service provider started offering the services in May 1999. The number of subscribers to the services has been declining since hitting a peak of about 210,000 in March 2001, NTT DoCoMo said. Prepaid mobile phones are often used in the fraudulent practice whereby people have money stolen from their deposits after being persuaded by tricksters pretending to be relatives to remit money to their accounts NTT DoCoMo plans to offer substitute services such as lending subscribers mobile phones, while prompting existing subscribers to the services to switch to different ones
(Nikkei, February 21, 2005)