Yeah, but I don't like this:
nytimes.com
<<Japan's NTT DoCoMo to Cut Back on Web Phone Sales
By STEPHANIE STROM
TOKYO, April 20 -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile telephone operator, said today that it would sharply cut sales of cellular phone handsets that offer Internet access through the end of May to ease the load on its overtaxed infrastructure.
The company said it would also suspend advertisements for its internet access service, called i-mode, until it fixes its service problems by increasing the capacity of its servers.
And it promised to refund 140 million yen, or $1.3 million at current exchange rates, to i-mode users who have had difficulty connecting to the network between Mar. 28 and Wednesday.
DoCoMo shares fell 210,000 yen, or 5.7 percent, to 3.49 million in heavy trading.
I-mode has proven immensely popular here, making DoCoMo Japan's largest Internet service provider with 6.14 million users. But the company has had to apologize for 13 service disruptions since January, as the number of i-mode subscribers has doubled to more than 5 million. Before that, service was temporarily interrupted only three times, according to the company. Analysts have long warned that the burgeoning demand for DoCoMo's services would tax its network.
The decision to curtail the availability of i-mode capable handsets is no doubt a bitter one for DoCoMo. Without i-mode, there is little to distinguish it from Japan Telecom and the DDI Corporation, two local competitors that would love to attract just a fraction of DoCoMo's business. DDI's Internet service is called EZWeb, while Japan Telecom calls its Internet service J-Sky.
DoCoMo said today that it would not revise plans to sign up 10 million i-mode users by the end of the year, and it still plans to make i-mode a standard feature of its phones this summer. With the service, customers can use their phones to send e-mail and read specially constructed web pages with news, stock quotes and other features.>>
Morgan |
