Japan lost the 3G war to UK

date: April 24, 2001

Britain's tiny Isle of Man is set to start 3G mobile phone services ahead of the rest of the world after Japan's NTT DoCoMo on Tuesday postponed its commercial launch by four months.

BT Manx Telecom has been running neck-and-neck with DoCoMo, the world's largest mobile Internet operator, to start 3G by the end of May.

But software glitches have forced DoCoMo to delay until October, leaving the field clear for the telecoms monopoly on this self-governing island halfway between England and Northern Ireland.

``We won't change our plans,'' Mark Briers, head of 3G at Manx Telecom, told the press. ``We've always had this ambition to be first but not at the expense of launching something that demonstrates 3G is slightly flaky. It's tight, but it's looking like we could achieve it.''

The handsets have only just arrived from Japan and Britain's foot-and-mouth epidemic has delayed things, but the engineers are working around the clock to meet the deadline.

If the base stations communicate properly and the new customer billing software doesn't crash, the Manx bankers and farmers will be able to hold video conferences, check weather forecasts and download games on mobile phones before the technology hits Tokyo.

The plan is bringing rare attention to the 30 mile (48 km) by 10 mile (16 km) isle that usually only rates a mention for its offshore banking industry, TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle race and as the birthplace of the Bee Gees' Gibbs brothers.

Still, news of the DoCoMo delay was of far less interest locally than the cancellation of this year's TT race because of foot-and-mouth precautions.

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