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To: foundation who wrote (8480)	12/7/2000 11:05:59 AM
From: tero kuittinen	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 34857

Sorry, Ben - but columnists generally need to coax feelings and emotions out of jaded and bored readers. It's not a failure from your part if there was a visceral response; this is how it should be. Ideally, that response shouldn't be seething rage, but I'll take that over indifference. I'm not sure my attitude towards GPRS is completely sexual (though I don't deny that can be a component!). It's mostly a result of putting together information about how the standard will develop. And it will develop; the initial data transfer speeds are not the same thing as the year 2002 transfer speeds. I invoke Eric as a hostile witness! Tero

To: foundation who wrote (8480)	12/14/2000 9:22:22 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

>> DoCoMo Boosts iMmode Reach Bien Perez December 12, 2000 Telecoms South China Morning Post NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, expects to drive international wireless Internet services based on its iMode business during the next two years. Network operators expected to be part of this expansion programme include AT&T Wireless in the United States, Dutch-controlled KPN Mobile in Europe, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom and Taiwan's KG Telecom - all companies in which NTT DoCoMo has a minority stake. However, the proposed next-generation wireless Net access services will not feature all the elements iMode provides today to its more than 15 million subscribers in Japan, according to NTT DoCoMo executive director Takeshi Natsuno. "Our interest is not to bring the whole Japanese experience to other countries," said Mr Natsuno, who is spearheading iMode's business strategy. What did interest NTT DoCoMo was the opportunity to leverage these local operators' assets and know-how to bring advanced mobile Internet services, which would attract more subscribers and online content partners. NTT DoCoMo's international partners are supposed to implement "iMode-like services" within the next two years, based on the local operators' respective infrastructure development plans. "Step by step, we are going to start adding attractive functions and features which are totally unique in their current global system for mobile/general packet radio service markets [GSM/GPRS]," Mr Natsuno said. NTT DoCoMo still had to closely monitor the markets in which its partners operated since these were based on different cellular communications standards from Japan. Operating under Japan's unique personal digital communications standard, NTT DoCoMo's iMode wireless data service claims about 50,000 new subscribers a day and offers more than 30,000 wirelessly enabled Internet sites to its user base. The company is scheduled to roll out what is expected to be the world's first third-generation (3G) wireless communications service in May - based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology. On the other hand, NTT DoCoMo's partners, such as AT&T Wireless, KPN Mobile and KG Telecom are either solely on GSM networks or on combination GSM and CDMA-based facilities. That means some operators will need to first implement GPRS - also called 2.5G - as it is supposed to represent an advance in the GSM standard and a step towards 3G. Mr Natsuno said other operators might even rush to 3G by going the same WCDMA route as NTT DoCoMo, based on existing CDMA platforms. He said the roll-out of iMode-like services was expected to prompt equipment vendors to speed up the shipment of their GPRS and 3G handsets. In Japan, NTT DoCoMo relies on about 15 vendors to supply it with phones which comply with iMode specifications. They include Sony, Mitsubishi, NEC, Ericsson and Nokia. IMode services are expected to gain acceptance in markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines, according to Joseph Sweeney, research director at Gartner Hong Kong. "These places are ready-made for iMode-type services since they are keen on adopting new technologies which offer plenty of convenience, such as mobile Internet access," he said. The myth about iMode being targeted only at young consumers was blasted by Mr Natsuno, who said only 7 per cent of iMode's user base were teenagers and about 25 per cent were in the 40-year-old age bracket. Mr Natsuno attributed that statistic to the fact that iMode offered a technology platform for various mobile e-commerce content, such as banking. "Of the more than 700 content partners we have, 320 are banks," he said. << - Eric -