Japanese telecommunications firm NTT DoCoMo will introduce the world鈥檚 first third generation (3G) mobile phone network on 1 October 2001.
The network will be 40 times quicker than DoCoMo鈥檚 existing i-mode (Japan鈥檚 answer to WAP) and the fastest commercial mobile phone network in the world. It will provide download speeds of 384Kbps and uploads at 64Kbps. This will be sufficient to allow users to download videos or music, for example. By comparison, European internet-enabled GSM phones communicate at speeds of just 9.6Kbps.
However, the new technology has had problems in testing. DoCoMo found problems with the performance of some handsets and glitches when users moved between different network 鈥渃ells鈥�. The launch was pushed back from May this year to October in order to continue testing. The problems have now been 鈥渟uccessfully resolved鈥�, according to the company.
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But some experts believe the new service could face further difficulties. 鈥淭here could be problems on all sides,鈥� says Falks Mueller-Veest, a telecommunications analyst with research company Durlacher in the UK. 鈥淭here always are when you go from the labs to the real world.鈥�
It may also take some time for users to warm to the technology, according to some analysts. 鈥淲e think that growth worldwide will be quite slow over the next three to four years,鈥� says a spokesman for the UMTS Forum, a UK-based industry group representing mobile technology companies. 鈥淚t is a long term investment and may be four or five years before you start seeing a return.鈥�
Teething troubles
British Telecommunications had hoped to introduce the world鈥檚 first 3G network in the Isle of Man in May this year, but this was stopped by a computer glitch that prevented the phones working on the move.
DoCoMo鈥檚 new service, christened Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access (FOMA), will first operate within 30 kilometres of central Tokyo.
It will then be launched in Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and Nagoya in December, and in other Japanese cities next year. Consumers will pay a flat fee of 8,000 yen (拢46) per month, or 2,000 yen (拢11.50) and more charges depending on usage. Japanese mobile phone customers currently pay upwards of 300 yen (拢1.7) each month.
The launch will be watched closely by European and US telecommunications firms that have paid a great deal for the right operate similar services. Five companies in the UK paid 拢22.47 billion for the right to deliver 3G services.