US : KDDI, Japan’s second largest wireless operator, and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) jointly celebrated a significant industry milestone on Sept. 16, 2003, when the 10 millionth mobile user was registered on KDDI’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)2000 1X voice and data network. KDDI launched its CDMA2000 1X voice and data service on April 1, 2002, on an all Motorola supplied wireless radio access network.

CDMA2000 1X subscriptions rose quickly after launch last year, hitting one million users on June 23, two million on August 23, and rapidly accelerating thereafter. CDMA2000 1X subscriptions surpassed 10 million after less than18 months of commercial service. Services are already offered in all 47 of Japan’s prefectures and administrative divisions and are accessible to over 90 percent of the country’s population. CDMA2000 1X technology nearly doubles the network voice capacity and is capable of transmitting data within a maximum downstream speed of up to 144 kilobits per second (Kbps).

“This is a great moment in time for KDDI and Motorola. CDMA2000 1X service has received increasingly positive response from our “au” customers since service launch last year,” said Tadashi Onodera, president of KDDI Corporation. “Motorola has responded to our business needs by meeting possibly the world’s toughest quality expectations of the Japanese market with great effort and enthusiasm. We expect to see continued strong growth and popularity of CDMA2000 1X with Motorola’s ongoing development of advanced features and services.”

“We are delighted to be celebrating KDDI’s achievement of 10 million CDMA2000 1X users in Japan, the world’s leading data service market. KDDI and Motorola have jointly established a very good business relationship for over 15 years from analogue TACS systems through the current CDMA systems,” said Simon Leung, senior vice president and general manager, Motorola’s Global Telecom Solutions Sector, Asia Pacific Region. “We are honored to play an integral role in KDDI’s wireless mobile area. Motorola continues to demonstrate its global leadership in wireless communications.”

Motorola’s CDMA2000 1X architecture builds upon existing 2G and 2.5G networks by adding packet based network elements. Reusing the 2G and 2.5G equipment within the 1X architecture can help protect the operator’s current investments and can help reduce both their capital and operating expenditures. Motorola currently has 16 announced CDMA2000 1X contracts with network operators worldwide.

For the KDDI network, these network elements include the access node from Motorola’s global strategic alliance partner Cisco Systems, Inc. that enables the radio access network to be Internet Protocol (IP) capable. With Cisco’s access node, Motorola’s CDMA2000 1X radio network offers a standards compliant solution that offers incremental features such as enhanced availability and scalability that help address the most critical needs of mobile wireless operator.