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NTT DoCoMo and Samsung to Jointly Develop GSM/GPRS i-mode Handsets



Tokyo, Japan, Mar 10, 2003 (JCN Newswire via COMTEX) -- Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and South Korea-based telecommunications leader Samsung Electronics announced today that the two companies have reached an agreement to jointly develop handsets that are compatible with second-generation (2G) GSM/GPRS wireless networks.

i-mode is DoCoMo's propriety mobile internet platform, and is currently being offered to customers in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Taiwan via the GSM/GPRS wireless networks of DoCoMo's partners. In Japan, i-mode is available to both PDC (2G) and W-CDMA (3G) customers.

"NTT DoCoMo is extremely pleased to be collaborating with Samsung," said Kei-ichi Enoki, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of DoCoMo's i-mode Business Division. "As a leading player in the global marketplace, Samsung has an excellent reputation for producing superior products. By joining forces with Samsung, we will be able to offer our customers an even greater selection of quality i-mode handsets. This will be extremely advantageous in helping us expand the number of i-mode customers in global GSM/GPRS markets."

"NTT DoCoMo's i-mode offers mobile users a variety of options to maximize their wireless experience. We believe that the adoption of i-mode into our phones will enable us to establish the mobile communication context of satisfying customers' various needs", ByungDuck Cho, Executive Vice President, Mobile Communication R&D Team of Samsung Electronics.

The phones, which will be equipped with ACCESS browser and Java(TM), are scheduled for market release in early 2004.

Samsung will showcase mock-ups of the jointly developed handsets at CeBIT 2003, the world's largest IT trade fair to be held March 12-19 in Hanover, Germany.

*i-mode and FOMA are trademarks or registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries.

**Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

About NTT DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company with more than 44 million customers. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode(R), the world's most popular mobile internet service, which provides e-mail and Internet access to over 35 million subscribers, and FOMA(R), launched in 2001 as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA. In addition to wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe and North and South America, the company is expanding its global reach through strategic alliances with mobile and multimedia service providers in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North and South America. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (TSE: 9437), London (NDCM), and New York (DCM) stock exchanges.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (KSE: 0083) is a global leader in semiconductors, the consumer electronics industry, and digital convergence technology. Samsung Electronics employs approximately 66,000 people in 46 countries. The company is the world's largest producer of memory chips, TFT-LCDs, CDMA mobile phones and monitors and the sixth-largest manufacturer of mobile phones. Samsung Electronics consists of four main business units: Digital Media, Semiconductor, Information and Communications, and Home Appliance Businesses.

Source: NTT DoCoMo

Contact:
NTT DoCoMo
Takumi Suzuki
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Copyright (C) 2003 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Japan Corporate News Network KK.

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