O2 launches i-mode in the UK

Free service until 2006

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 26 Sep 2005

Mobile service provider O2 will turn on the UK's first i-mode phone service next week.

I-mode is a proprietary mobile data system developed by NTT DoCoMo that allows 2G and 3G services to be transmitted to special handsets.

Samsung and NEC will each have two handsets ready for the launch, ranging in price from £79 to £279, and more are planned.

"The i-mode experience in other countries shows that this new depth and breadth of content, combined with the speed and simplicity of use, leads to far higher customer usage," said Matthew Key, chief executive at O2.

"For example research has shown that seven out of 10 people who buy i-mode handsets use the service, compared to just three out of 10 who use the available Wap services on their handset, and those users access four times more content."

Standard internet pages cannot be viewed over an i-mode phone but over 100 companies will have i-mode pages ready for viewing at the launch, including Egg, Channel 4, BAA and Interflora.

To stimulate demand O2 is offering free content browsing and free content subscriptions on i-mode phones until the end of 2005. It is also offering free picture messaging and email until April next year.

"The success of i-mode in Japan is not a technology thing, but the philosophy behind it," said Andy Buss, senior analyst at Canalys.

"In Japan it's very easy to open websites and subscribe to services. Unless they have that in place in Europe this could be Wap mark two."

O2 also plans to launch a service in Ireland next week and in Germany in 2006.