Philippine Operator to Launch I-mode Services Next Month

Philippine operator, Smart Communications has announced that it will launch i-mode services for its contract customers from the middle of next month.

In the Philippines, i-mode will be available exclusively to Smart Gold subscribers. Under the i-mode service, Smart Gold subscribers will have access to i-mail, allowing them to send email via their handset in the same simple way SMS messages are sent, and at the same cost of only P1 per message. As technologies develop and user-lifestyles evolve, Smart plans to make available more attractive and practical content and information to i-mode users in the Philippines.

"We understand and seek to cater to the rapidly evolving needs of today's mobile phone owners. Smart provides not only cutting-edge connectivity to the biggest network in the country, it also offers access to world-class services, such as i-mode," says Danilo J. Mojica, head of Smart's Wireless Consumer Division.

"We will continue reinforcing our partnership and work closely with SMART to deliver an array of communication and entertainment services with compelling values and convenience," says Mr. Takeshi Natsuno, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Multimedia Services, NTT DoCoMo.

According to figures from the Mobile World though, while the company ended last September with a shade under 20 million customers - only 340,000 of them are contract customers and able to use the service.

As of June 30, 2006, i-mode has 46.8 million customers in Japan and over 5 million in the rest of the world. i-mode is being provided world-wide through DoCoMo's partners through a licensing scheme involving mobile operators in the following countries: Germany (E-Plus) (currently phasing out), the Netherlands (KPN) (currently phasing out), Belgium (Base), France (Bouygues Télécom), Spain (Telefónica), Italy (Wind), Greece (Cosmote), Hong Kong (3) and Taiwan (Far East Tone), Singapore (StarHub), Israel (Cellcom), Ireland (O2), Bulgaria (Globul) and Russia (MTS) have launched i-mode services October 2005. The worldwide partnership is called the i-mode Alliance.

Posted to the site on 27th February 2008