NTT DoCoMo, Smart to offer mobile email, Internet service

The world’s leading mobile communications company is set to offer in the Philippines the most popular mobile e-mail and Internet service.

NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s mobile communications leader, and Smart Communications have forged a partnership that will allow Smart to offer to its subscribers one of the world’s leading technologies, called i-mode, beginning March 15.

i-mode is a mobile email and Internet service launched by NTT DoCoMo in February  1999. Today it is used by more than 47.8 million subscribers in Japan. Through NTT DoCoMo’s global partnerships, it is also available to mobile subscribers in 15 other countries in Asia and Europe.

Smart said the new service is being offered as part of its thrust of offering messaging options that answer a wide array of subscribers’ needs.

Smart has over 30 million subscribers on its GSM network. DoCoMo serves over 53 million customers and offers a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services, including i-mode, the world’s most popular mobile e-mail/Internet service. DoCoMo is one of the biggest shareholders of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), which owns 100 percent of Smart. The NTT Group, which includes NTT Communications and DoCoMo, own 20 percent of PLDT.