THE HAGUE, The Netherlands—After much speculation about i-mode services in the European market, KPN Mobile said its German subsidiary E-Plus will begin offering the commercial mobile data service this week, followed by KPN Mobile’s launch in the Netherlands in April.
KPN said the European i-mode service, tailored after the service offered in Japan by KPN Mobile minority shareholder NTT DoCoMo, combines a mobile handset with color display and special ring tones with an array of services and e-mail.
KPN Orange in Belgium will offer i-mode services in June after rebranding to BASE, KPN said.
E-Plus will offer the German service for a monthly subscription of US$2.61, with content services ranging from free to up to US$1.74 per month. The NEC N21i handset will sell for US$217. Content providers include news, soccer, gaming, job vacancy, cinema listing and local mapping services.
NTT DoCoMo holds a 15-percent stake in KPN Mobile. The Dutch operator began testing the service last December. Analysts question whether i-mode can match its success in the Japanese market—there are more than 30 million i-mode users in Japan—in the European arena.
