KDDI Selects Coding Techologies' MPEG-4 aacPlus for New EZ ``Chaku-Uta Full'' Music Download Service

Business Wire, Oct 25, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- aacPlus(TM) Provides KDDI Faster Downloads, Reduced Cost, and More Music Storage

Coding Technologies, the leading provider of audio compression technology for mobile, broadcasting, and Internet, today announced that KDDI Corp. of Japan has selected MPEG-4 aacPlus for use in their new mobile music download service, EZ "Chaku-Uta Full"(TM). With service starting in November, KDDI will initially provide the service on handset models from Toshiba, Hitachi, Sanyo, and Casio. KDDI selected aacPlus, also known as HE AAC, to speed downloads, to reduce network costs, and to store more music on the handsets.

KDDI is launching EZ "Chaku-Uta Full" nationwide in Japan with approximately 10,000 tracks. Users can preview songs then purchase them for direct download to their mobile handset. To increase the size of their library, users can also move tracks to miniSD cards on enabled handsets. The first four handset models to ship will be Toshiba W21T, Hitachi W22H, Sanyo W22SA, and Casio W21CA.

"Building on the success of our EZ `Chaku-Uta(R)' ringtone business, we are moving to full song downloads as a defining service for our mobile customers," said Makoto Takahashi, Vice President and General Manager of the Content Division of KDDI Corporation. "With aacPlus, we give our customers faster downloads, higher quality, and more songs on their handset, while we save money operating the network."

"KDDI is leading the way toward convergence," said David Frerichs, Vice President and U.S. General Manager of Coding Technologies. "By providing mobile phones with swappable storage, great headphones, flat-rate data, and direct access to all the music you want, they have suddenly made PC-centric devices obsolete for Internet multimedia. This action further accelerates the status of aacPlus as a common denominator codec across markets."

Coding Technologies

Coding Technologies provides the best audio compression for mobile, broadcasting, and Internet. SBR(TM) (Spectral Band Replication) from Coding Technologies is a backward- and forward-compatible method to enhance the efficiency of any audio codec; putting the "PRO" in mp3PRO and the "Plus" in aacPlus. Parametric Stereo from Coding Technologies and Philips again significantly increases the efficiency of audio codecs for stereo signals at low bit rates. Products from Coding Technologies are fundamental enablers of open standards such as 3GPP, MPEG, Digital Radio Mondiale, HD Radio, and DVD. Coding Technologies is a privately held company with offices in Sweden, Germany, and Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997 in Stockholm, the company later merged with a spin-off of the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the inventor of MP3. Coding Technologies' customers include AOL, iBiquity Digital, KDDI, mmO2, MusicMatch, Nokia, RealNetworks, SK Telecom, Texas Instruments, Thomson, Vodafone, and XM Satellite Radio.