By Ron Coates, 19 January 2001 15:36
NEWS The three companies will be investing around $30m each in setting up two R&D centres in Italy and the Netherlands to develop services such as gaming, email, SMS, image exchange, location-based services and mobile transactions. The companies are also in talks with selected handset makers to produce a combined iMode/WAP handset by the end of the year. Matt Hanrahan, analyst at Bloor Research, said: "NTT has played everything right. It has covered the bases before anyone else even knew it was there. It's got the global presence, global strength and lots of people want to work with NTT because it has the most experience with the business model and the blueprint for the portals." However, the WAP Group warns there are problems inherent in adopting iMode. Graham Brown, CEO of the WAP Group, points to the fact that iMode is proprietary - owned by NTT - and WAP is open and adopted by over 500 companies in Europe and elsewhere. He said: "All NTT can bring to the equation is a very strong brand and some very cool apps - but the technology is not that different. But NTT entering the market can be a good thing and we can pool knowledge and understanding of both technologies and business models and learn from them to build the market and the industry." DoCoMo has a 15 per cent stake in KPN and a $1.2bn, 20 per cent stake in Hutchinson 3G UK Holdings, which owns part of three of the five UK 3G licences. TIM and DoCoMo have had a technical alliance since 1997. TIM will exploit the joint developments in Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean basin where it already has 20.7 million customers.
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