NTT DoCoMo Announces Termination of PHS Services
TOKYO, JAPAN, April 27, 2007 — NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries today announced that they will terminate Personal Handyphone System (PHS) mobile phone services on January 7, 2008.
DoCoMo, having previously announced in January 2006 that PHS services would be discontinued sometime around October-December 2007, has been contacting current PHS subscribers to inform them of details and related information about the termination and to introduce alternative services, such as DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA????, via regular mail and other means. The company is also examining a possible subscriber transition to WILLCOM, Inc., which provides its own PHS services.
As part of the change, DoCoMo is also preparing to launch sometime during or after October 2007 a new flat-rate packet-data service for connecting laptops to the Internet via FOMA phones. The service, which will replace the @FreeD???? flat-rate Internet-access service via PHS, will be a maximum 64Kbps service costing ????4,200 (tax included) monthly. The service requires a FOMA handset or data card compatible with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), and separate subscription to an ISP, such as DoCoMo’s mopera U????.
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