While Japan’s largest wireless operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc., continues to trial its 3G network in select portions of Tokyo, speculation continues to circulate that the planned October launch of commercial services, already pushed back from May, may not be met.
“In light of our FOMA test results and other findings about 3G, we are increasingly worried about the chances of success for the 3G service in Japan,” said research firm Cazenove in a report. “We believe that the commercial service will be further delayed. If the service is offered as scheduled, we suspect that subscriber growth will be disappointing.”
NTT DoCoMo said it plans to upgrade its i-mode wireless Internet access service in order to meet the increasing demand and lighten the burden on its existing networks. Some industry watchers see this step as foot-dragging on 3G.
During the trial period, DoCoMo’s FOMA service has been plagued with faulty handsets and network equipment that have raised questions about the short-term future of both the carrier’s 3G network and the UMTS technology underlying it.
Even with the troubles, DoCoMo remains confident it will launch the service commercially by October.
“In the trial we learned that the problems were less severe than we had anticipated,” Keiji Tachikawa, president of DoCoMo, said in an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun. “In October, we think we will be able to begin full service.”
To fix some of the handset problems the carrier has run into, DoCoMo said it will distribute an upgraded model of its standard-type FOMA N2001 phones that have been provided to 1,400 customers taking part in the network trial.
The upgraded phones are supposed to be more stable than the earlier models and realize a higher quality connection to the network. The phones also contain a universal serial bus connection and extend the maximum length of incoming e-mail from 4,000 alphanumeric letters to 10,000 characters.
DoCoMo also notified Japan’s Minister of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications that it will introduce a new fee system for its packet communications service, DoPa, effective November 1.
The fee system will include discounts of up to 40 percent to institutional customers using more than 100 phone numbers. The carrier currently charges $7.17 per month per line for the service.
While DoCoMo continues to fight network problems at home, the carrier said it will delay the launch of its popular i-mode wireless Internet service in Europe due to technical problems at local operators, according to the Asian Wall Street Journal.
“Our i-mode-like service would be delayed by a quarter or two quarters,” Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, managing director of DoCoMo’s global business department, told the newspaper.
DoCoMo had originally planned to launch the service next March.
