Full article attached below....
Saturday, May 26, 2001
Govt Delays Full Approval Of DoCoMo's 3G Cell Phone Service
TOKYO (Nikkei)--NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437) may be forced to delay the full-scale
launch of its 3G cellular phone service because of government concern over
transmission quality.
The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry postponed approval of the
high-speed data transmission service, ministry sources said Friday.
As a result, the service offering i-mode Internet access, music and videos,
said to be 40 times faster than the present service, may be delayed until
next year or later from the planned October launch.
The telecom ministry decided the system for the data service is unstable and
the quality cannot be guaranteed, but will approve the voice service.
NTT DoCoMo has so far failed to fix glitches in the software to control
high-speed data transmission.
Japan's largest cell phone operator, however, plans to begin a fee-based
test service of 3G i-mode mobile phones in late May as originally scheduled,
and the company has already signed up 4,500 subscribers.
The telecom ministry will allow the company to carry out the test service,
including high-speed data transmission. But the ministry will require NTT
DoCoMo to explain to users that it cannot guarantee the quality of data
transmission. NTT DoCoMo will also be required to devise measures to deal
with problems with the service.
The ministry is expected to require the company to report regularly on the
performance of the data service until NTT DoCoMo launches the 3G i-mode
service commercially.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Saturday morning edition)
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Received on Mon May 28 14:26:43 2001