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NTT DoCoMo said that it will set-up the wholly owned subsidiary, DoCoMo i-mode Europe B.V., in Amsterdam in late July. The company will initially employ 10 people.
According to the Japanese company, DoCoMo i-mode Europe will provide consulting in areas such as technology and marketing, as well as support in the set-up and operation of i-mode services.
Its initial clients will be European operators to which DoCoMo has licensed i-mode technology. These are KPN Mobile in the Netherlands, E-Plus Mobilfunk in Germany, BASE in Belgium, and Bouygues Telecom in France.
However, an equally important task for the new subsidiary will be in encouraging other European operators to choose i-mode as their mobile Internet service. Although DoCoMo does have four clients in Europe, all but one of them, Bouygues Telecom, is owned by KPN Mobile, which in turn is part owned by NTT DoCoMo.
First pioneered in Japan where it became incredibly popular, i-mode allows users to access a variety of mobile entertainment content and applications such as games, restaurant guides, maps and pictures. The service has around 30 million subscribers in Japan and DoCoMo is hoping to replicate this success in Europe, which has been starved of innovative mobile offerings due to delays in rolling-out advanced mobile networks.
I-mode has been available in certain European countries since March of this year. In Germany, for instance, E-Plus customers can sign up for a monthly subscription to i-mode from around EUR3. I-mode-enabled handsets cost approximately EUR250 as part of E-Plus' I-mode package. It is unclear yet what European take-up levels for the service have been like.
DoCoMo i-mode Europe will have EUR2.4 million in capital when it is established. According to the Japanese company, its "likely" president will be Yusuke Kanda, who is currently working in the i-mode planning department at NTT DoCoMo's headquarters.
The company also announced earlier this year that it would launch i-mode in the US in the second half of 2002. This will be done through one of the top three mobile operators in the US, AT&T Wireless, in which DoCoMo has a 15 percent stake.
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