Japan's government has decided not to guarantee the technical quality of high-speed Internet services on NTT DoCoMo's next-generation mobile phones, a report said yesterday.
The decision has raised "a possibility that the full launch of the company's high-speed Internet services will be delayed until next year or later", from October as first planned, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
NTT DoCoMo is to go ahead with the partial launch of trial services Wednesday as earlier scheduled.
However it was unusual for a carrier to start new services without getting a government guarantee, the economic daily said.
Japan's telecoms law requires carriers to ask the telecommunications ministry to check if planned services clear a certain level of quality for users.
If they fail to obtain the guarantee they usually have to give up launching the service as it stands.
The mobile phone giant had originally touted the May 30 launch as the start of the world's first third-generation (3G) commercial service.
Third-generation mobile phone services will allow for rapid transmission of video, enabling wireless video conferencing and other applications.
In April, however, NTT DoCoMo decided to delay the full commercial launch of its 3G service until October 1 because it needed to conduct more tests.
It instead plans to make the service available on a trial basis from Wednesday to ensure reliable operation. During the test period, users will receive free handsets and be exempted from paying basic monthly charges, but will have to pay for their calls.
The telecommunications ministry is concerned over high-speed data transmission in the new service, the Nihon Keizai said.
Internet service on the 3G phones would be 40 times faster than the present i-mode service, but the ministry found the high-speed i-mode service was unstable due to software glitches, the newspaper said.
The ministry will allow the company to start the test service, given it has already signed up 4,500 quality monitors, it said.
But it will require NTT DoCoMo to explain to users that it had not obtained the official guarantee on data transmission and explain how it would deal with customers in the wake of trouble, it said.
In another setback to its 3G service, NTT DoCoMo announced Friday a hitch in the trial service as well.
Three types of new phones were to be available during the test period, but one of them, the P2101V videophone model, will not begin service for another month due to software problems.
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