TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will stop accepting new prepaid customers at the end of March, citing the use of prepaid phones for fraudulent purposes. The Japanese carrier said previous steps to stop fraudulent use have been unsuccessful.
“As fraudulent use has persisted, DoCoMo has decided to stop accepting new applications and will consider terminating the service entirely if problems continue,” the carrier said.
DoCoMo launched its Pre-Call prepaid service in May 1999. The number of subscribers peaked at about 210,000 in March 2001. About 80,000 customers used the service as of January.
In other DoCoMo news, the carrier said it will combine its i-mode mobile Internet service with m-commerce for a pilot to allow users to buy train tickets with their handhelds.
DoCoMo and Sony Corp. are teaming for the service that will be used on East Japan Railway using its Suica train tickets. More than 10 million Suica cards have been issued. The cards can be used to ride trains and make purchases at selected restaurants, convenience stores and other shops inside and outside train stations.
A test of the service is scheduled to begin in March using pilot i-mode FeliCa handsets.
