DoCoMo to launch e-money trials

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By Martyn Williams

(IDG) -- Users of NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s I-mode service will be able to purchase canned drinks using their telephones shortly as the company, together with Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp., launches trials of a new system that allows users to pay for goods with their cell phone handsets.

The three companies plan to launch trials of the service with a small number of equipped vending machines in late August or September, according to company sources. A detailed announcement regarding the trials and launch plans is expected to be made within the next two weeks.

Coca-Cola has launched similar trials with mobile telephone companies in other parts of the world. Most recently it unveiled a service with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. that enables users to buy drinks by making telephone calls to vending machines. The price of drinks purchased is then added to the telephone bill.

The new service in Japan was developed separately from these other trials and is expected to be more sophisticated.

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Under the new I-vending service, users of I-mode will be able to load credit into electronic wallets in their telephones using the vending machines. This credit will then be available for purchasing drinks from the machines. Users will also be able to collect loyalty points that can be exchanged for free drinks or promotional merchandise.

The project is one of several NTT DoCoMo is working on that, it hopes, will redefine the way people use cell phones. The company has already done it once, adding wireless Internet services to its handsets and making information and e-mail access on the move a part of everyday life for millions of Japanese. Now it is trying to do it again with wireless payments.

Some experiments have already taken place. NTT DoCoMo and other carriers have tested a system whereby users can purchase movie tickets via their cell phones and then gain access to the movie theater by displaying a bar code on the handset screen.

At a higher level, NTT DoCoMo is also one of several companies working with Sony Corp. on the development and deployment of its Edy electronic money system. The partners in this project hope to get 30 million cards and 15 million personal terminals into the hands of Japan's 127 million people by late 2006.