And the product examples you cite attest to Alcatel's U.S. market leadership in the fast-growing optical submarine network, ADSL broadband Internet access and digital-loop carrier product areas.

FORBES: Readers Say

The intention is, we'd imagine, to push hard to bypass all this absurd carrier torpidity and make online digital music something that maybe isn't an incredibly expensive, incredibly painful experience for consumers.

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Accessed through your smartphone, tablet or PC, and regardless of wireless carrier or broadband provider, the Digital Life application was designed to be as simple and effortless as possible.

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The carrier is based on the specifications for the digital video disc, the home-movie format introduced last spring.

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For more context and information on the technical aspects of the issue, you can review the NTIA's letter to the Library of Congress' Register of Copyrights (.pdf), voicing strong support for maintaining the previous exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for cell phone carrier unlocking.

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Don't let the name run away with your imagination -- the Japanese carrier is focusing on sharing music, video and digital content between smartphones and other home electronics, not automating your apartment.

ENGADGET

In 1993, NTT DoCoMo, Japan's principal mobile-phone carrier, opted for a technical standard called Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), which was incompatible with the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), the standard adopted by most of the rest of the world.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Phone Wars: Episode 3G