NTTDoCoMo To Further Enhance 3G Handsets

NTTDoCoMo To Further Enhance 3G Handsets

CHIBA, Japan (Dow Jones)--NTT DoCoMo plans to further enhance its third-generation "FOMA" mobile phones this year, DoCoMo President and Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa said Tuesday.
"Our target is to release a (3G) handset with a standby battery time of more than 300 hours in the fall of this year," Tachikawa said in a speech at Marcus Evans' 3G Mobile World Forum in Chiba.

Inset is DoCoMo President and Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa.

Just last month, DoCoMo said it would soon release new 3G handsets with standby battery times of 170-180 hours, much longer than its current 3G handset models.

Tachikawa added DoCoMo intends to reduce the weight and size of its 3G handsets to comparable levels of its high-end 2G handsets and plans to improve the screen resolution and basic performance of its 3G handsets in the coming months.

"Around the spring of this year, we are planning to release a dual-mode 2G and 3G handset, because currently more than 30% of the 3G subscribers are using the dual network service," Tachikawa said.

DoCoMo's dual-mode handsets would eliminate the need for subscribers to buy both 2G and 3G handsets to communicate via 2G and 3G networks. Last summer, DoCoMo launched its dual network service that allows subscribers that own 2G and 3G handsets to use a single phone number.

When DoCoMo releases its new 3G handsets in the market, the company will upgrade its "i-motion" video clip distribution service currently offered on its 3G service, Tachikawa said.

"File size will be expanded to 300 kilobytes, up from 100 kilobytes," he said.

To lure more subscribers to its struggling 3G service, Tachikawa said the company is also actively developing a wide range of 3G applications covering six categories - Internet, visual communications, media distribution, positioning, remote sensing and settlement.

Since the launch of DoCoMo's 3G service in October 2001, the 3G service has suffered from sluggish subscriber growth, mainly owing to bulky, heavy and expensive 3G handsets with short battery lives and limited service coverage.

-By Ron Harui, Dow Jones Newswires

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