China and Japan announce 4G alliance

There is an [interesting story at Silicon.com that talks about China and Japan collaborating on 4G](http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39151708,00.htm).

Here are two countries that have not been big adopters of Wi-Fi and other broadband wireless technologies for internet distribution, and who also are not big promoters of the participatory and two-way culture that has made Wi-Fi and Community Wireless so popular in the Americas and Europe. It will be interesting to see how these two countries develop their own take on broadband wireless. I suspect that, like 3G in Japan, 4G won’t be so much about the internet in general, but will be more of a walled garden approach as content is concerned. Its interesting to note that the way that both Japanese cell providers and the Chinese government view content distribution, namely as a channel where media is “approved” or blocked, is very similar.

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