Lending support to the US argument that the restrictions imposed by Japan’s Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications’s on telecommunications in Japan are designed to give a breathing space to Japanese firms while they develop their own leading edge equipment, Fujitsu Ltd has announced in Japan that it hopes to develop and market the world’s smallest mobile phone next year. The units will be much smaller and less expensive than the MicroTAC from Motorola Inc, which officials finally agreed in June could be used in the Tokyo area. NEC Corp and other Japanese telecommunications equipment manufacturers have been trying to catch up with Motorola. Fujitsu did not give details of its products, except to say that the key components such as a highly efficient inductive filter would be used for the phone’s core and that Gallium Arsenide would be used to reduce power consumption. Industry sources have claimed that the Motorola phones will take at least six months to come into services because of changes required to the base stations, and use will be limited by the number of frequencies allocated.
