Japanese electronics firm NEC is to start supplying Internet-enabled mobile phones in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands based on NTT DoCoMo's popular "i-mode" service within weeks.
NEC said today it intends to supply folding-type phones with colour displays for GSM and GPRS networks to Dutch carrier KPN Mobile, which has wireless operations in the three countries.
KPN Mobile’s parent company, Royal KPN, and its Swedish counterpart, Telia, held a 35 per cent stake in Eircom before the company was broken and sold off to Vodafone and Valentia Telecommunications.
Japanese mobile carrier DoCoMo, which owns 15 per cent of KPN Mobile, has been able turn itself into Japan's biggest company by market value thanks to the success of i-mode
. In three years it has secured over 30 million users browsing the Web on screens no bigger than a credit card. I-mode is seen as a key bridge to third-generation services.
A successful European launch would ease investor fears that carriers may take longer than expected in recouping the more than €100 billion spent on 3G services.
KPN Mobile, an unlisted unit of Royal KPN, has already begun field trials for i-mode services.