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J-Phone and Hutchison stick to launch plan
September 6, 2002
J-Phone and Hutchison Whampoa on Friday said they would stand by
plans to launch 3G mobile services this year, despite a sluggish
start to the high-speed service by industry leader NTT DoCoMo.
DoCoMo said on Thursday it would probably lower its 3G subscriber
target for the business year to next March, casting a cloud over
its growth prospects.
"It's way too early to draw any conclusion on 3G," said a spokesman
for J-Phone, which is operated by Japan Telecom and its parent Vodafone.
Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, among the most bullish WCDMA investors,
joined J-Phone in upholding their 3G strategy.
"For Hutchison 3G, our plans remain unchanged. We will start to
roll out phase one to approximately 5,000 friendly customers in
October," a spokeswoman said.
DoCoMo which uses W-CDMA standard originally aimed to sign up 1.38
million 3G users by March, but it has so far met with tepid demand
due to limited service areas and relatively expensive handsets with
a short battery life. As of the end of July, 127,400 people had
signed up for DoCoMo's 3G service, compared with 1.64 million 3G
users at rival KDDI that uses the CDMA2000 standard.
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3G Motorola A920
