The Japanese digital satellite broadcasting (DSB) systems JSkyB and PerfecTV have unveiled plans to merge their operations. The move would leave only two rival DSB systems, the second being DirecTV Japan (DTVJ), which is led by America's Hughes Communications. JSkyB is owned by the US media giant News Corp. and the Japanese software, TV and electronics groups Softbank, Fuji TV Network and Sony. PerfecTV is led by the Japanese trading houses Mitsui, Itochu, Sumitomo and Nissho Iwai.

The Japanese electronics group NEC said it has developed an encryption technology that is safer than the popular RSA technology and more difficult to break than the next- generation of elliptic encryption code. It would be marketed in mid-1998.

The Japanese long-distance operator Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD) has announced the launch of an Internet-based international phone service which offers prices 80% lower than KDD's normal calling rates. The service will be operated by KDD Communications, the Internet access arm of KDD.

Four leading Japanese electronics groups, Hitachi, Matsushita, Mitsubishi and Toshiba, have announced that they would set up a consortium to jointly develop a smart home system for remote control over the Internet of home appliances, heating, lights, air conditioning and other functions, as well as connection to emergency and police services.

The Japanese software company Softbank said it would spend $51 million on taking a 22.5% stake in GeoCities, a US Internet start-up that allows Internauts to set up their own home page for free. Softbank said it would finance part of the investment by selling back shares in America's Yahoo!, the most popular Web search engine, but that it would retain a 30% stake in Yahoo!. Softbank and GeoCities already collaborate in Japan, where they have set up a joint venture, GeoCities Japan Corp., in which they respectively own 60% and 40%. It has attracted 40,000 users since October 1997.

A group of 20 leading high-tech companies said they intend to test in Japan in March 1998 a technology that allows for the high-speed transmission of data over wireless personal handyphone system (PHS) circuits. While PHS currently offer a 32 Kbit per second transmission speed, the new technology would increase that to 25-30 Mbit per second. Involved companies would include the Japanese telecoms operators NTT, KDD and DDI, the Japanese electronics groups NEC and Fujitsu, and possibly the US and European telecoms equipment manufacturers Motorola and Ericsson. (Source: ISTrends)

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