>Considering the returns involved, dare I say that Docomo (and others)
should be paying my company for offering the service?
I think you have a point here. My view is that we will see more and more
lobbying from investors and corporations, pushing Docomo to either (1) share
its packet revenues with mobile operators (ASPs, content SP etc...) OR (2)
decrease the price per packet to boost customer frequentation.
The (1) seems unlikely to happen since it might entice mobile operators
(ASP, contents, retailers...) to overbill customers ("rogue" applets sending
a lot of data...). This overbilling being facilitated by the fact that,
apparently, I-mode bills don't show the breakdown of packet fees per sites
(for the moment only, maybe).
Surely, the Japan Telecommunications Ministry is conscious that Docomo's
interests might be a barrier to global value creation (i.e: the development
of mobile web) and is already attempting to optimize the whole thing
(remember: "Japan's Telecommunications Ministry plans to force the country's
top mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc, to open up i-mode wireless Internet
service to more web site operators, according to local media reports"
(source: MforMobile)).
Another interesting subject of discussion is "to which extent should the
Japan Telecommunications Ministry try to intervene in the mobile
phenomenon."
For the moment, given Docomo's quasi-monopoly on the predominant I-mode, the
forces of competition do not apply and I personally think that global value
maximization is thus not guaranteed (trusting my microeconomics professors
were OK and following a firm belief that general value creation is the way
to go!). Under such conditions, I feel that state intervention is a must.
Olivier who apologizes if the whole thing above got out of focus.
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Mon Feb 19 10:01:03 2001