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DoCoMo takes i-mode to France
By Alex Frew McMillan
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest cell-phone company, will launch its i-mode service in France next week. The company said its local partner, Bouygues Telecom, will offer the service starting November 15. France is the sixth country to get the i-mode service, which is already available in Japan, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Taiwan. DoCoMo picked Bouygues Telecom in April to bring I-mode to France by the end of the year. The two companies struck a 10-year deal taking them through 2012. (Full story) Bouygues Telecom, with 6.6 million customers, is the first i-mode partner that isn't part-owned by NTT DoCoMo. Not quite "third generation" serviceThe i-mode service is sometimes dubbed "2.5 G," since it allows Web access and falls between video-ready "third generation" phone calls and standard "second generation" phones with text. Using i-mode, customers can read e-mail, surf the Internet, buy tickets and check their bank balance. It was first introduced three years ago and now is available to 20 million customers in Europe. AT&T Wireless is also in the process of bringing it to the United States. (Full story) DoCoMo, which means "Anywhere" in Japanese, has more than 50 percent of the cell-phone market in Japan. It has had a tougher time introducing its expensive 3G service, with some analysts questioning whether customers need all its features. Rival KDDI is the market leader in 3G, having signed up 2.65 million customers so far using a different technology. Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa said this week it still plans to sign up paying customers for its 3G service in the United Kingdom by the end of the year. (Full story) Behind on camera phonesOn the other hand, Japanese phone users have proved eager to buy cell phones with built-in cameras. There are now more than 10 million in use in Japan, meaning one in seven cell-phone users have one. Competitor J-Phone is the market leader there, topping 7 million subscribers since it first started offering camera phones two years ago. It sells 20 different models. DoCoMo came late to that market but has since sold 2.2 million camera phones. Separately, DoCoMo unveiled a new I-mode handset, the Mova, that will go on sale in Japan on Saturday. The color-screen phone has features that make it easier to enter text. DoCoMo stock closed down 1.63 percent at 241,000 yen on Wednesday, despite a 0.18 percent rise in the Nikkei average.
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