J-Phone users get access to I-mode sites

By Staff and wire reports

TOKYO, Japan -- J-Phone will start offering services next week that would give its subscriber base access to rival NTT DoCoMo's mobile Internet sites.

By widening its content menu, J-Phone is poised to bolster its number of users, which accounted for 16.7 percent of Japan's mobile market in July.

J-Phone, Japan Telecom's wireless arm, currently offers the J-Sky mobile Internet data service, under which 7.89 million users can access 850 Web sites.

NTT DoCoMo's I-mode Internet access service claims about 25 million users who access as many as 48,000 sites.

Win-win arrangement

Starting on August 15, J-Sky users will be able to reach 150 I-mode Web sites.

J-Phone aims to expand the number of accessible I-mode sites to 500 by the end of March next year.

The arrangement is seen as a win-win situation for both mobile operators.

"From the point of view of J-Phone, this is something that will increase the value of the J-Phone proposition for its subscribers," said Gartner Group mobile analyst Nick Ingelbrecht.

"It increases the value of the I-mode service as well -- it's another distribution channel for I-mode content."

But industry observers question if J-Phone users will eventually have access to the full range of DoCoMo mobile offerings including Java-based content, premium services and eventually third generation services.

"For an announcement like this to be meaningful, it has to talk about how we're moving ahead," said Ingelbrecht.

"People are looking for increasingly functional services, looking at how subscribers will be able to access Java and 3G services."

Last month, Chris Gent, chief executive of Britain's Vodafone Group, which owns 45 percent of Japan Telecom and a controlling stake of about 60 percent in J-Phone, said it may list J-Phone after streamlining its structure and services.

Gent said J-Phone and its three regional companies would be combined into a single company by the end of this year.

By Wednesday afternoon, shares in Japan Telecom were unchanged at 500,000 yen. NTT DoCoMo shares were up 2.2 percent to 1.85 million yen

Reuters contributed to this report.