KDDI, the parent company of Japan’s second mobile operator, is also a large player in the business and residential fixed line market and today the company announced a new service of interest to customers who subscribe to both its fixed and mobile packages.

The new, free service monitors fixed line activity and sends a c-mail (similar to SMS) to the subscriber’s mobile phone to inform them of incoming calls. The c-mail gives the caller’s name and number, time of call and whether the call was answered or not.

Although all three major Japanese operators have stakes in the fixed line business (DoCoMo through NTT and now Vodafone through Softbank’s Japan Telecom), there are few services which really take advantage of this. This will perhaps become a key advantage for the three big operators to exploit as the imminent new entrants to the Japanese mobile market begin to vie for their market share.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 9:03 am