NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile-phone company, said it will begin selling this week a new range of handsets that can access its i-mode wireless Internet service at speeds three times faster than older models.
Two models made by Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Fujitsu Ltd will go on sale on Friday, DoCoMo said. Buyers will be able to play video games with features such as three-dimensional graphics.
With market growth slowing and charges for regular calls falling, DoCoMo plans to win new users and boost sales in Japan by offering new features. Still, the access speeds of the new phones will lag those of handsets offered by rivals KDDI Corp. and Vodafone Group Plc's J-Phone Co.
"DoCoMo is just playing catch up," said Bruce Kirk, a telecommunications analyst at Commerz Securities Japan Ltd. "In the last six to nine months, they have gone from market leader to market follower."
KDDI and J-Phone have both introduced faster wireless services in recent months.
DoCoMo said it plans to add new models supplied by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan Inc, Matsushita Communication Industrial Co and NEC Corp to its latest lineup.
"It's a further evolution of i-mode," Takeshi Natsuno, a senior DoCoMo executive, said at a trade fair in Tokyo. "The current i-mode is on a level with arcade games of 20 years ago such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man, and the new service is on the same level as games of 10 years ago."
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