Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI recently revealed plans to adopt the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard for its next-generation mobile phone services, Nikkei reported. By adopting the LTE standard, KDDI's services will operate on the same system as NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank when the services commence around 2010.

At present, KDDI's 3G mobile services run on the CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) system, while NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank base their 3G services on the WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) standard. The LTE protocol is a successor to the WCDMA standard and is capable of achieving a transmission rate of 1 gigabit per second for incoming calls, equal to the speed of fiber-optic telecommunications, according to Japan Today.

The uniformity of the three major Japanese operators' adopted next-generation protocol is envisaged to help reduce the mobile phone makers' R&D investments. Also, operators are expected to offer more flexible service rates in the future, as the consumers will no longer be daunted by the prospect of having to purchase new mobile phones when switching to other operators.