O2 / Docomo

Tony_ire

O2 plc, a leading European mobile operator, and NTT DoCoMo, Inc., Japan's largest mobile communications provider, today signed a long-term strategic agreement under which O2 will launch the i-mode mobile internet service in the UK, Germany and Ireland.
This partnership will complement O2's existing expertise in data services with DoCoMo's experience in non-sms data and its extensive research and development capabilities. Customers will benefit from easy to use services, rich content applications and messaging across a range of advanced handsets.

Under the terms of the agreement, O2 is licensed by DoCoMo to offer the i-mode capability to the 22 million customers of its 2/2.5G and 3G mobile communications networks. Already the world's most popular mobile internet platform with more than 45 million subscribers using over 6,100 official content sites in 10 countries and regions, i-mode will be available on an extensive selection of advanced multimedia handsets and devices from major Asian, European and US manufacturers. These currently include NEC, Panasonic, Siemens, Motorola and Samsung, amongst others.

O2 UK and O2 Ireland will have exclusive use of i-mode branding and technology in their respective markets. In Germany, the company will launch the service based on i-mode technology under its own brand. In addition to its 800 retail outlets in the three countries, mmO2 has the right to sell the i-mode service and handsets through its existing independent retail channels.


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spongebob

The Japanese have had a multiumedia rich service for years , its called iMode and has its own flavour of 3G called FOMA , info on it Here . It is not fully compatible with 'European' 3G or 'American' 3G and requires a different Handset to run ...details in that link above. Well maybe is 'somewhat' compatible with 'European' 3G but thats because you could have generic 3g and iMode in the same spectrum.

iMode , launched 4 or 5 years ago , was a better WAP/GPRS implementation at the time and it took off in Japan.

Ho and BeLold, O2 have just announced that they have licenced FOMA/IMODE in the UK and in Ireland, see Here . The 3G (aja imode aka FOMAS) launch is due in the second half of 2005 according to This report a few days back.

M

jesus_thats_gre

It is not the technology or the branding behind iMode that has made it popular. The fact that the Japanense love new technology and that iMode actually had decent content is why it has taken off..

Foma is just NTT DoCoMo's name for their 3G service... The technological differences between the 3G standard they has implemented and the other 3G standards should be, and is, irrelevent to the consumer.. Basically, they shouldnt know its different..

O2 customers will experience "iMode" in the exact same way they experience common WAP at the moment, the only difference being the content.

Vodafone Live is similar enough in concept to the iMode portal but without the same level of 3rd party material.

You can't help but think that if the original WAP service was launched in Japan instead of iMode that it would have been a success also..


Sorry, a bit cynical today