i-mode mobile Net service on the way, NATION

Pichaya Changsorn
The Nation (Thailand)
10-01-2001
Marubeni said it would bring DoCoMo's i-mode, Japan's hugely popular mobile
Internet system, to the domestic market this year.
The launch of i-mode would be in the same timeframe as the planned
upgrading of local cellular phone systems to the 2.5-generation (2.5G)
wireless technology by the two major operators, Advanced Info Service (AIS)
and Total Access Communication (TAC), at the year-end.
"We're going to transfer i-mode-like content, which is very popular in
Japan, to Thailand," said Ko Mori, president of Marubeni Thailand.
"We're talking to TAC and AIS, which are going to introduce 2.5G at
the end of the year. We're also in talks with CP-Orange." CP-Orange is
shaping up as the newest cellular phone system provider in Thailand with
its announcement recently that it had awarded a US$250 million (Bt11 billion)
contract for Motorola to install its network to enable it to launch the
service by year-end.
The i-mode plan for Thailand could likely involve the linking up of
Marubeni with Thai partners in new joint ventures, Mori added without elaborating.
The Japanese trading house already has 64 joint ventures operating in Thailand
in industries ranging from hospitals, agriculture, multiplex theatres,
textiles and steel to power plants, automobiles, chemicals, insurance,
IT and software.
In contrast to the slow start of mobile Internet services everywhere
else in the world through the so-called WAP (wireless application protocol)
system, i-mode has become an instant phenomenon in Japan with more than
6 million users registered within the first 14 months of its inception
in February 1999. Mori did not say what specific i-mode contents Marubeni
is thinking of introducing here. But in Japan, i-mode services include
road traffic navigation; guides to movies, restaurants and shows; games;
cartoons; virtual pets; banking; and air ticketing.
DoCoMo introduced i-mode in Japan on its 2.5G network and is planning
to go to 3G by 2003. For Thai cellular companies, upgrading to 2.5G from
the current second-generation wireless network will require marginal investment
compared to the huge cost for 3G.



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