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NTT to Start i-mode Services in U.S.

Posted by timothy on from the streaming-webcams-everywhere dept.

Vertigo Donkey writes: "Reuters has a report on NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s debut on the London and New York stock markets on Friday. What does this mean for the US? Well, according to a (very) brief article in the Japan Times, DoCoMo plans to offer 'its i-mode Internet-capable mobile phone service in the United States before the end of this year.'"

3 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmm... cute litle letters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dokomo is Japanese for "everywhere" so it's a play on words.

  2. Re:Nordic countries in all this ? by Gerein · · Score: 2, Informative
    While this is great I suppose, I am surprised that they will not begin with the usual heavy-weight mobile-phone-friendly countries, such as Finland, Sweden..

    I think the reason for that is, that DoCoMo holds a large share of KPN, the Netherland's biggest mobile phone operator, which in turn posseses a part of E-Plus a smaller german operator. I'd guess the picture is simillar in Belgium. They're planning to introduce the service in Germany at the CeBIT (biggest computer fair in the world), which would be in 10 days.

  3. Re:Hmm... cute litle letters by xylix · · Score: 2, Informative
    Does those cute litle letters (DoCoMo) mean anything in English?

    Those cute little letters mean something in Japanese. It is derived from 'doco demo'. Doko means 'where'. Doko demo means 'anywhere'; hence referring to service you can use anywhere. The first word is used with a sylable from the second word (and of course changing the k to a c). This is a common way of creating new words in Japanese - whether it be standard Japanese words, or new slang or corporate (in this case) branding.

    I have also heard of docomo being lengthened into "Do Comunications" as another poster mentioned but I am quite sure this was a marketing slogan and not the origin of the word.