This article was published on February 25, 2013

DoCoMo, China Mobile and KT cooperate on Wi-Fi, NFC roaming for Japan, China and Korea


DoCoMo, China Mobile and KT cooperate on Wi-Fi, NFC roaming for Japan, China and Korea

Asian carriers NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile and KT have announced a new partnership on both Wi-Fi and NFC roaming plans across their respective countries of Japan, China and Korea.

The three companies are showing off the scheme at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this week. The system, which will allow travelers to roam onto Wi-Fi networks outside of their home countries, is set to arrive in the second quarter of 2013.

The trio laid the groundwork for the project when they announced a cooperation back in 2011.

The carriers will make use of EAP-SIM authentication, which should allow them to forgo a username and password system.

As for the NFC roaming agreement, the three wireless operators have prepared two white papers for MWC detailing their joint plans for NFC in Asia. One paper poses a definition for NFC roaming and discusses the process of commercial deployment, while the other goes into specific technical requirements for handsets. The three said they have been in talks for the project since January 2011 and began working on “common requirements” in April 2012.

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NFC has plenty of promise in Asia, and having three of the region’s biggest carriers working together should speed up adoption.

China Mobile has over 700 million subscribers, DoCoMo has over 60 million users and KT has more than 17 million customers.

Image credit: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA / Getty Images

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