Mmbi has raised $618 million in funding as they prepare to launch a smartphone broadcasting service. The investors in this round are from their 11 corporate partners, which includes Fujitsu, Sharp, and Fuji Media Holdings. Their new partners will also provide media business expertise. Mmbi is a subsidiary of mobile communications company NTT DoCoMo. They have issued 962,000 new shares and the 11 partners took 196,620 of them. Other existing shareholders took the other 765,360 shares. [Variety]

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan costed the lives of hundreds of people and had disrupted communications in the Asian country. People are lining up at public phones which takes the priority of networks during and after the earthquake. Cell phones still work, but the service gets jammed quickly. Data works much better than voice on mobile networks. The three largest mobile phone networks said that their services were disrupted across Japan. The three largest mobile phone network companies include NTT DoCoMo, KDDI Corp., and Softbank Corp. The wireless systems said that their reception was either considered to be poor or bad after the earthquake. [ComputerWorld]

NTT DoCoMo has bought 35% in PacketVideo, a NextWave Wireless subsidiary for $45.5 million in cash earlier this week.  Over the last 10 years, DoCoMo and PacketVideo have been partners on mobile multimedia solutions.  PacketVideo plans to use the investment to advance their music and video technology.

“We are building on our unique and highly successful relationship with DoCoMo to further strengthen PacketVideo’s position in developing the best in class media experience, regardless of format or platform,” stated PacketVideo CEO James Brailean.  The PacketVideo CORE multimedia pvPlayer has been integrated into 90 DoCoMo phones since 1998.

[via InformationWeek]

Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo holds 26% market share in Tata Teleservices based in India.  Tata and DoCoMo have decided to merge their brands together to create a brand in India.  The new brand is called Tata DoCoMo and it will be a GSM service.  Tata DoCoMo will be launching in South India first and then gradually spread across the nation.  What this means is that we will most likely see a lot more high tech mobile phones leaving Japan and entering the Indian subcontinent.  Tata executives must be singing “Jai Ho” right now.

[via EngadgetMobile]

Fujitsu has unleashed a new phone called the PRIME Series F-09A on the NTT DOCOMO. The F-09A will be available on June 10 in Japan. The F-09A has a 3.4″ touchscreen with a VGA LCD. The F-09A screen can slide and rotate into a horizontal position. The F-09A is the only phone with the world’s first Exercise Monitor. The phone has an 8.1 megapixel camera with autofocus. The phone also has a geomagnetic sensor and GPS. Other features include 3G connection, GSM, Bluetooth, and TV tuner.

[via GizmoWatch]