LONDON-I-mode services are coming to the competitive U.K. market, in addition to Ireland and the second such service in Germany, through a new deal between U.K.-based MmO2 plc and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc.
Under the long-term strategic agreement, MmO2 will launch the i-mode mobile Internet service to its 22 million customers. O2 UK and O2 Ireland will have exclusive use of i-mode branding and technology in their respective markets. In Germany, O2 will launch the service based on i-mode technology under its own brand. Rival carrier E-Plus already offers i-mode service in Germany.
In addition to its 800 retail outlets in the three countries, MmO2 has the right to sell the i-mode service and handsets through its existing independent retail channels.
MmO2 said nearly 22 percent of its service revenues now are derived from data services, and it hopes to raise that figure with the i-mode launches. “Following the recent success of i-mode elsewhere in Europe and its growing subscriber base, we have conducted a thorough evaluation of the opportunities offered by licensing this technology. Of particular significance is the ARPU (average revenue per user) increase experienced by other i-mode licensees-largely driven by the combination of an intuitive, easy-to-use interface with an impressive selection of handsets and a wide-ranging content library,” said Peter Erskine, chief executive officer of mmO2.
NEC, Panasonic, Siemens, Motorola and Samsung and others currently offer i-mode handsets.
O2 plans to introduce i-mode in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the second half of 2005. In Germany, the service will be offered from the second quarter of 2006.
The agreement marks DoCoMo’s 11th partnership for the i-mode service. In addition to Germany, DoCoMo currently has other i-mode agreements in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Greece.
On Monday, Danish carrier TDC said it would launch a mobile virtual network operator service in the United Kingdom using T-Mobile U.K.’s network.
