TOKYO- NTT DoCoMo, in cooperation with KPN Mobile and E-Plus, is scheduled to launch i-mode-like services in the Netherlands and Germany in the fourth quarter. Access, a Japanese provider of microbrowsers for non-PC devices including NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service, is also exploring the European market.
Handsets used for the i-mode-like services will be equipped with Access’ Compact Net Front Plus new microbrowser. Toru Arakawa, president of Access, said the firm is closely working with mobile carriers and handset vendors on launching i-mode-like services based on its technology.
The firm’s targets are NTT DoCoMo’s business partners. Access has worked with DoCoMo since it launched i-mode in 1999 and will provide the microbrowser for the carrier’s FOMA third-generation (3G) service. The firm in April set up an office in Germany and plans to launch its European business using the German office as a springboard.
For European carriers, using Compact Net Front Plus is vital, because the browser supports c-html, the language used for NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service, in addition to WML, the markup language used in Europe’s Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) services, and x-html basic, the next-generation language for the Internet. Many European carriers provide WAP services, although they so far have failed to attract large numbers of users.
When Access’ Compact Net Front Plus is implemented on handsets, users can see i-mode content, as well as WAP content and content to be written in x-html. This will allow users to access more sites and applications.
Success of i-mode-like service in Europe is largely dependent on the construction schedule of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) networks. But Arakawa believes i-mode services will take off at least in Germany. “I think they (Germany) will get 10 million i-mode-like service users within three years,” he said.
Arakawa explained the firm decided to set up its office in Oberhausen, near Dusseldorf, because the site is close to both KPN Mobile and E-Plus. Access plans to set up another European office in either Britain or France soon.
“Since there are no NTT DoCoMo business partners in either country, we should expand our business in these countries, while we will make efforts to win our own customers,” Arakawa said.
NTT DoCoMo has provided its i-mode technology for Hutchison Telecom in Hong Kong, which has been providing i-mode-like services since May 2000. However, Hutchison’s scheme is different than the European operators’ plans. Hutchison is providing services by translating NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode content written in c-html into WML-based content at base stations and offering the translated content on WAP-enabled handsets. So Hutchison Mobile’s handsets do not include the Net Front Plus microbrowser.
Arakawa explained that although Hutchison is the largest mobile carrier in Hong Kong, most vendors do not want to produce handsets targeting such a small market. But once i-mode-like services take off in Europe and mass production of handsets with Net Front Plus launches, vendors could bring their Net Front Plus handsets into any market, including Hong Kong.
“Then real i-mode-like service may take off in Hong Kong,” he said.
U.S. delays
The U.S. market is behind on i-mode-like services compared with Europe and Asia.
Following a deal concluded last November, AT&T Wireless became the exclusive partner of NTT DoCoMo in the U.S. market. At the time, AT&T said it would launch construction of a GPRS network in the fourth quarter of 2001. However AT&T’s GPRS construction schedule has been delayed. Arakawa estimates AT&T Wireless will not launch its i-mode-like service this year. He also said because AT&T currently provides WAP service, it may initially choose the Hong Kong scheme of using translators at base stations rather than in the handsets.
Besides AT&T Wireless, Access is also approaching U.S. carriers Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless as potential Net Front Plus users.
Asian advances
Access plans to set up an office in Taiwan as the basis for its Asian business. Arakawa said that for a while his firm will target Taiwan and Hong Kong.
NTT DoCoMo announced in June it plans to increase its stake in Taiwan’s KG Telecommunications by purchasing a maximum of 62.36 million new shares from existing shareholders. The Japanese carrier currently has a 20-percent stake in KG Telecom. The value of its new stake will be determined after the number of shares accepted by other shareholders is known.
The increased investment will pave the way for the early deployment of an i-mode-like wireless service in Taiwan, NTT DoCoMo said. The companies are targeting the introduction of i-mode-like services in Taiwan for around mid-2002.
Although his firm has received some offers from Singaporean and Thai firms, Arakawa will take a wait-and-see position on these two markets because they are quite small.
Keiji Tachikawa, president of NTT DoCoMo, had repeatedly said NTT DoCoMo would like to help expand wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) services around the world. But recently, he seems to have shifted the focus of NTT DoCoMo’s international strategy from 3G expansion to mobile Internet expansion, with the European i-mode launch as a first step.
That strategy has the potential to translate into a big business chance for Access, which is targeting to win 1 billion yen (US$8.3 million) in sales in fiscal year 2003 from overseas business.
