February 15, 2005
NTT DoCoMo pioneers 'dark side' research on mobile phones
Japan's NTT DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura in Cannes, confronts the profound social impact of cell phones on the Japanese population. [via Comms Design]
"In a "fireside chat" during Tuesday's keynote session, Nakamura cited the Mobile Social Research Institute, founded last year by his company, as a pioneer in measuring and improving the implications for Japanese society which depends heavily on mobile telephony.
Citing the myriad forms of mobile phone misuse — ranging from bad subway etiquette to the exploitation of prepaid mobiles in criminal, or terrorist, conspiracies — Nakamura said, "Operators shouldn't escape this issue by just laying the blame on society."
He added, "We are concerned that, if we don't face these issues squarely and try to solve them one by one, we are the ones who will bear the blame."
Homma also cited the threat of spam over mobile e-mail as an emerging issue for study.
Nakamura, the NTT DoCoMo CEO, also mentioned response to natural disasters as another key concern for his company's social research group. During the Kobe earthquake in Japan a decade ago, mobile phones saved countless lives by replacing a system of fixed-line telecommunication that had been destroyed.
In the 2004 Niigata quake, mobile telephony turned out to be a more mixed blessing. With 85 million mobile phone users in Japan, almost all of them reaching out to Niigata at the same time, said Homma, "Within an hour, the network was jammed."
Nakamura said earthquake gridlock, or post-tsunami overload, represent the sort of problems that mobile operators cannot just accept. They bear a social responsibility to their customers to foresee such crises and prevent them.
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