TOKYO: Japanese electronics firm NEC Corp said on Monday it would start
supplying Internet-enabled mobile phones in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands
based on NTT DoCoMo Inc's popular "i-mode" service in the spring.
NEC said it would supply folding-type phones with colour displays for GSM
(global system for mobile communications) and GPRS (general packet radio system)
networks to Dutch carrier KPN Mobile NV, which has wireless operations in the
three countries.
Japanese mobile carrier DoCoMo, which owns 15 per cent of KPN Mobile, has
been able turn itself into Japan's biggest company by market value thanks to the
success of i-mode. In three years it has clinched more than 30 million users
browsing the Web on screens no bigger than a credit card.
I-mode is seen as a key bridge to third-generation services.
A successful European launch would ease investor fears that carriers may take
longer than expected in recouping the more than 100 billion euros spent on 3G
services, whose fast speeds make video and music downloads to mobile phones
possible.
KPN Mobile, an unlisted unit of Royal KPN NV, has already begun field trials
for i-mode services. NEC said the phone, dubbed the "N21i", can
display content in both DoCoMo's HTML (hyper text markup language) and WAP
(wireless application protocol), the different technical languages used to
create wireless Web content.
DoCoMo said earlier this month that E-Plus Mobifunk GmbH would launch an
i-mode type service in Germany within two months and that KPN, which owns 15 per
cent of E-plus, would launch services in the Netherlands and Belgium in April.
DoCoMo became the first operator in the world to offer 3G services when it
launched in Japan last October.