Japan's Web Use To Explode As I-Mode Becomes Standard Feature
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CT Wireless via NewsEdge Corporation : As if the growth of mobile Internet usage in Japan wasn't rapid enough already, dominant wireless provider NTT DoCoMo [MBNXY] is pushing the rate into overdrive.
NTT DoCoMo this week began making Internet access a standard feature on all new phones it sells.
One-fifth of Japan's POPs, more than 27 million people, have an Internet connection, according to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. According to Japan's wireless industry, about 10 million of the country's Web users are logged on through mobile connections.
And NTT DoCoMo's move to include its "i-mode" mobile Web service system on all the handsets it sells will further accelerate Internet usage in Japan.
The number of Web surfers is expected to triple to 76.7 million by 2005, three-fifths of Japan's POPs, according to the Post and Telecommunications agency.
The United States, with roughly twice the population of Japan, already has more than 100 million Internet users, for a penetration rate of about 40 percent. Little of that total, however, is in the mobile Web space.
Japan was slow to enter the Internet age, but its wireless industry is making up for the slow start. Wireless penetration in Japan is at 40 percent - with the number of mobile subscribers exceeding the number of wireline users - and the number of people using wireless services expected to reach 80 million by 2005, according to the Post and Telecommunications agency.
NTT DoCoMo, the world's No. 2 mobile provider behind Vodafone AirTouch [VOD], has 7 million i-mode users and projects it will have 10 million by the end of this year. The carrier projects that number to double by the end of 2001, rivaling America Online's [AOL] market of 21 million subscribers.
Japan's mobile Internet services, however, are carried by wireless systems incompatible with the GSM technologies used in other Asian markets and in Europe as well as the CDMA and TDMA standards prevalent in other regions. That barrier won't remain in place, though.
Japan plans to adopt the wideband CDMA third-generation standard next spring. That change will make its mobile phones compatible with those in other countries using the standard. |
