NTT DoCoMo licenses i-mode in France

TOKYO -- NTT DoCoMo, the world's largest and fastest growing mobile communications company, will license and transfer its i-mode technology and trademark to French mobile communications operator Bouygues Telecom. Under the licensing pact, DoCoMo will provide Bouygues Telecom with the patents, know-how, and technologies needed to launch the service on the Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and UMTS networks if Bouygues Telecom is granted a 3G license in France.

The pact will remain valid from April 17, 2002 to April 16, 2012 and is renewable by mutual agreement. Bouygues Telecom (pronounced "bweeg") announced that it plans to introduce i-mode service in its markets in the next 12 months. Subscribers will be offered a variety of mobile internet services and content using cellular phones equipped with dual browsers for i-mode-compatible HTML and WAP-compatible WML1.X. 

"NTT DoCoMo is excited about the prospect of Bouygues Telecom introducing i-mode service to its subscribers in France," said Keiji Tachikawa, President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. "The service has already been successfully deployed by E-Plus in Germany and will be launched by KPN Mobile in the Netherlands (this week). With Bouygues Telecom on board, we are glad to see the further expansion of the i-mode community in Europe."

Fourth European country

France becomes the fourth European country to get the i-mode technology from  NTT DoCoMo. In Germany, E-Plus started with i-mode last month. KPN Mobile starts this week in The Netherlands, and KPN Orane is scheduled to launch  i-mode in Belgium this June.

Bouygues Telecom is France's third largest mobile operator with 6.6 million subscribers. The licensing to Bouygues Telecom also includes French Guyana, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Reunion.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Bouygues CEO Martin Bouygues the i-mode service in France will be more successful than competing services in other European countries using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) because i-mode is easier to use. "I-mode will certainly be the key word for success," Bouygues told Associated Press. "The difference between WAP and i-mode is very important, and that's why we chose i-mode."

40 times faster

Bouygues also told reporters that he plans to work with NTT DoCoMo in 3G mobile technology called 3G. NTT DoCoMo is now selling 3G service in Japan, where data is transmitted up to 40 times faster than other mobile communications. Bouygues Telecom has applied to the French government for a 3G license and, if granted, plans to start the i-mode service by the end of this year or early next year. 

"We are delighted by the signing of this agreement, which will allow Bouygues Telecom to offer the French consumers the i-mode services," said said Gilles Pelisson, CEO of the Bouygues Telecom subsidiary. "i-mode means friendly, easy to use and highly efficient multimedia services which our customers are eager to discover."

NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company with more than 40 million customers. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include, the world's most popular mobile Internet service, which provides e-mail and internet access to over 32 million subscribers. In addition to wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and Brazil, the company is expanding its global reach through strategic joint ventures and other alliances with mobile and multimedia service providers in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges.

6.6 million customers

With 6.500 employees, 6.6 million customers and a network that covers over 98% of the French population, Bouygues Telecom has extended its international coverage to 140 countries through roaming agreements with more than 280 foreign operators, including all the operators in the EU. Bouygues Telecom is a Bouygues group affiliate company. Bouygues, a diversified industrial group, which owns 64.5% of Bouygues Telecom, is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and included in the CAC 40 Index.

In a message to stockholders last October, Tachikawa said the popularization of cellular phones in recent years has propelled the lightening-fast development of Japan's mobile telecommunications market. "Driven by the expanding needs of the market, the mobile environment's boundaries are being extended beyond digital voice to fully encompass data and video communications, including NTT DoCoMo's popular i-mode service for wireless Internet connection," he said.

"Under a 10-year plan we call Mobile Frontier, we are aggressively developing new communications services for our increasingly mobile society," Tachikawa said. "This includes the development of ever-closer relationships with customers to ensure the highest possible quality of our services, products and networks."