ASIA : J-PHONE announced it will provide richer communication options for its customers by offering new price plans and discount services on October 1, the day it changes its company name and brand to Vodafone.

To begin with, J-PHONE will introduce a new service called Vodafone Happy Time which has a uniform rate of 5 yen per minute for calls to other J-PHONE customers during Saturday, Sunday and national holidays. In addition, two new price plans and a new discount service will be added to satisfy customers’ expanding needs.

On its 3G Vodafone Global Standard service, J-PHONE will lower videotelephony charges to the same level as voice calls. The two new price plans consist of one aimed at heavy users with a basic monthly charge of 20,000 yen and 17,000 yen worth of free calls, and another suited for economy users with a basic monthly charge of 5,900 yen and 2,700 yen worth of free calls. Furthermore, a new discount service called Vodafone Happy Bonus, for customers who sign a two year contract, offers a 15% discount on basic monthly charges and free basic monthly charges for two months on every ten months of use*. In addition, those who sign up for Vodafone Happy Bonus before March 31, 2004 will be eligible to qualify for music, restaurant and shopping prizes.

*For the first year only, two months of basic charges are free after 13 months of use. On the Vodafone Global Standard 3G platform, videotelephony and 64K digital communication charges will be lowered to the same level as voice calls, down from the current rate of 1.8 times the price of voice. J-PHONE is also currently actively considering the introduction of a packet communications discount service.