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The deal with KPN Mobile will see NTT DoCoMo license technology that will let the Dutch operator launch services "similar" to i-mode and comes at the same time that NTT released its financial results for the six-month period ending in September. Furthermore, the licensing pact follows a previous announcement in the year that was due to create a joint venture between the two firms to roll out i-mode services in Europe.
According to NTT, that joint venture is still being negotiated. In the in mean time the latest deal will see KPN begin work on the services which are due to be launched in Europe in the second quarter of 2002. This news comes after DoCoMo struggled to meet its earlier rollout target for the end of 2001. The new licensing deal with KPN Mobile is valid from 07 December 2001 to 01 January 2012 during which time during which time NTT DoCoMo will collect licensing fees.
"We had considered a joint venture as a good idea...but we thought it would be better to license out the technology to firms, to get the service out as soon as possible," DoCoMo president Keiji Tachikawa told a press conference. "It is not an amount that will cause an impact on our bottom line, so there is no need for concern,'' said Tachikawa.
I-mode is DoCoMo's highly popular mobile phone service that lets users run a variety of applications over their mobile phones including e-mail, chat, games and other real-time Internet services. I-mode, like other 2.5G technologies, are generally considered an important step in the race to launch 3G services in Europe. In fact, the NTT KPN pact was followed closely by a separate announcement on Thursday that will see KPN co-operate with UK-based mobile operator mmO2 in rolling out 3G services in the Netherlands.
DoCoMo bought its 15 stake in KPN Mobile for YEN407.3 billion (USD3.36 billion) in August 2000. But on Wednesday it reported an extraordinary loss of YEN262.7 billion on a consolidated basis as it wrote down its investment in the Dutch carrier.
Also on Wednesday NTT DoCoMo said that its profits dropped by 52 percent in the first six months of the fiscal year, in part, because of a sharp drop in the in the value of its investment in KPN Mobile. The Japanese telecom said it earned YEN103.8 billion (USD858 million) in the six months ended in September, down over 50 percent from the YEN217.5 billion it recorded a year ago.
Despite the drop in earnings, revenue for NTT 18 percent to YEN2.6 trillion (USD21 billion) from YEN2.2 trillion a year earlier.
For the fiscal year ending in March 2002, DoCoMo said it expected to earn a profit of YEN255 billion (USD2 billion), down 30 percent from YEN365.5 billion the previous fiscal year. The company also said it expects revenue will rise 11 percent to YEN5.2 trillion (USD43 billion) from YEN4.7 trillion.
The company predicted that mobile phone user numbers will climb 13 percent to 40 million from 36 million last year, and nearly 32 million will be i-mode users, it said.
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