(keitai-l) DoCoMo, AT&T plan U.S. I-mode wireless launch next year

Report says DoCoMo, AT&T plan U.S. I-mode wireless launch next year

      By Martyn Williams 
      

      TOKYO -- NTT DoCoMo is planning to launch its wildly popular I-mode wireless Internet service in the United States next year, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

      The company, which will launch I-mode with its partner AT&T Wireless Group, is eyeing Seattle as the first city that will get the service, the AP quoted Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, managing director of the company's global strategy, as saying in an interview. Nationwide rollout is expected to take two years, the AP reported.

      Charges for the AT&T service are expected to be similar to those in Japan, Tsujimura said, according to the report. Additionally, AT&T may offer a flat-rate pricing scheme, the AP said.

      In Japan, NTT DoCoMo charges according to the amount of data sent and received by users. Each packet of 128 bytes costs $0.0025. Thus, 200KB of data, which is equivalent to 1,563 packets, costs the user $3.90. Pricing of wireless Internet services is something currently on the minds of many telecommunications carriers and was discussed earlier this week at an industry forum in Portugal.

      In November last year NTT DoCoMo secured a deal with AT&T Wireless to launch I-mode in the United States. The deal also saw DoCoMo take a 16 percent stake in the American operator and take charge of its wireless data operations.

      I-mode just celebrated its second birthday in Japan. The service, which allows users to send and receive e-mail and access a host of entertainment and information services, just added support for Java applets. It currently has more than 20 million users in Japan and is the world's most successful wireless Internet service.

      Martyn Williams is a Tokyo correspondent for the IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate. 
     



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