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DoCoMo Plans Always-On Net Service for PDAs, Notebook PCs

February 28, 2003 (TOKYO) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc. will launch on April 1 an always-on Internet service for users of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and notebook computers that access the Net through PHS (personal handyphone system) telecommunications, company sources said.

The move reflects efforts to catch up with DDI Pocket Inc., the largest provider of this kind of service, which unveiled on February 27 a device that allows both data and voice communications.

DoCoMo plans to charge a flat monthly fee of 4,880 yen for its service, called @FreeD, 50 yen less than a comparable service offered by DDI Pocket.

DoCoMo considered ending its money-losing PHS operations in 2002, but decided to continue them in view of the success of DDI Pocket's PHS-based data communications service. It plans further discounts in order to catch up with DDI Pocket.

DoCoMo's new service will deliver maximum throughput of 64kbps, the same as that of the ISDN service offered by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.

DoCoMo will also offer as an option an annual advance payment package, at a flat 48,000 yen.

Card modems used in the service will be supplied by Sharp Corp and Panasonic Mobile Communications Co Ltd.

DoCoMo intends to market in June a device that can use both the PHS Net service and a wireless LAN (local area network) service called Mzone with a maximum throughput of 11Mbps. Use of the Mzone service will cost an extra 2,000 yen per month.

A subscriber would use the PHS service while traveling, with the device automatically shifting to the LAN service as soon as they arrive, for example, at a hotel where it can be accessed.

The Mzone service is now available at some 100 locations in the Tokyo area, including hotels and restaurants.

Customers using the new device to be marketed by DDI Pocket in early April will pay a monthly fee of 4,930 yen for Net browsing, plus 10-30 yen per minute for voice communications.

(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

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