(Almost) I-mode Service Coming in April

DJSK8 Mast0r Ralph McDaniels writes: "Looks like NTT DoCoMo Inc's investment in AT&T last year is coming to fruition as this article from allnetdevices.com lays claim to AT&T rolling out i-mode based services repackaged for the U.S. market as m-mode service with Motorola, Sony/Ericcson, Nokia and Siemens offering the requisite phones to take advantage of it. Not quite 3G, but seems on par with the 2.5G services Verizon recently rolled out, though both are a far cry from the 100Mbit/20Mbit 4G services DoCoMo is already working on."

Comments

Imod/Wap GPRS/GSM

[BrookHarty]

ATTWS, Cingular, Voicestream are building GPRS networks now, they only have to upgrade via hardware to full GSM. They are spending the money NOW to build the networks and hardware.

Sprint,Verizon have to do 2 steps to get to full GSM, This is a more expensive, and slower option.

I-Mode and WAP etc is all support by standard webservices, so all you need is an apache webserver to roll out the services. (Ok, some back end software but not the cost)

Will be interesting to see what happens.

Re:New phones.

[evilned]

Sorry, I wouldnt bet on it. although GSM is finally in america, the frequency used everywhere else isnt available here. Personally, the one thing that irks me is having to go through AIM to message anyone off of the sprint pcs network.

Re:New phones.

[Cato]

Just be sure to get a tri-band GSM phone - the US uses GSM at 1900 MHz, while the rest of the world uses a mix of 900 and 1800 MHz.

Even if you get a single-band phone, you should be able to take your GSM phone's SIM card and put it in phones that you rent overseas (called SIM roaming) - but it's much more convenient to just use your phone everywhere, with all the phone numbers and other setup. I've used my GSM phone all round Europe and it worked fine in India (Mumbai) when I was there.

I spent a week in Japan, and can't wait for DoCoMo

[Blackwulf]

I'm not gonna argue about any of the GSM or any of the technical stuff, but the features of I-Mode and just the cell phones in general really amazed me, and showed how primitive my Nokia 5165 really was after spending a week visiting a friend in Japan. 16-bit color graphics, 32-voice polyphonic sound (so your ringtones can be that much more annoying), digital cameras, videoconferencing (available in December 2002), and the java games...In one of the booklets I brought back, it showed that you could play Street Fighter II on your cell phone, and it looked almost as good as a Gameboy Color screen, and it was even back-lit.

Of course, the arguments AGAINST this kind of technology is because "you shouldn't be playing games on your cell phone". The mentality explains why they're popular in Japan but not here - at least in Tokyo, you spend a lot of time on public transportation, since it's really good there. What you would do on the trains is open up your DoCoMo and read the news or play a game while going to your destination. In America, you spend most of your time in private transportation (cars) - where you should NOT be playing a game or reading the news on a cell phone. (I fully support any legislation that forces the use of hands-free devices when you're driving)

And the funny thing was on one of the trains. There were signs in the cabin asking you not to use your cell phone at your seat to not disturb the other passengers. Then, in between cars (where you can use them), there's a sign that says that J-Phone (the other provider) is equipping all of the tunnels in Tokyo with receivers so you can still use your phone when you go under a tunnel. So they're saying "Please don't use your cell phones on the train, but we're gonna make it easier for you to use your cell phone on the train!"

So now I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of even a low-end DoCoMo to the US - and unfortunately I've heard that Atlanta will not be GSM compliant until the beginning of NEXT year, so I got a ways to wait.

Better read that more closely

[dagbrown]

Hooray! i-Mode is coming to the USA at long last!

Oh wait:

Applications will include messaging (SMS, instant messaging and email), information services and entertainment. Certain features popular in Japan, such as cartoons, "just wouldn't sell here in the States", and have been eschewed, Blasi said.

Yup, that's right, they're going to launch an i-Mode service, but they're not going to include any of the things that make it cool! Because, of course, being big execs, they know what the American people know better than the American people themselves do. That's why the portals were such roaring successes, after all, right?

Oh wait, it's not even going to really be i-Mode:

"We plan to launch a consumer offering next month," AT&T Wireless spokesperson Ritch Blasi said. "It's not i-mode, it's based on i-mode - the technology and the methods DoCoMo uses in terms of marketing."

Run that one by me again--it's going to be sorta like i-mode, but not really actually i-mode? Just similar in terms of marketing? What does that mean?

Oh, wait, here's what it means:

The US firm will not pay NTT DoCoMo license fees, unlike other NTT DoCoMo partners in Europe, including KPN Mobile in the Netherlands and Germany, both of which launched recently.

It means "We want to launch a service which is kind of like i-mode, only without any of that annoying cool stuff, and without having to pay NTT DoCoMo to license their technology. But we're pretending to be i-mode even while we're disclaiming that we're not so that we can get the right keywords into our press release."

Feh.