NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading cellular telephone network operator, has unveiled plans for the start of a commercial wireless LAN service in Tokyo.
The new service, which will be launched on July 1 under the name MZone, is small in scale compared to that of sister-company NTT Communications, which began a commercial service earlier this year.
The NTT DoCoMo network will initially provide coverage of nine locations in Tokyo, and expansion plans for the rest of the year call for a further seven locations to be added to the network. NTT Communications launched its network in mid-May with 200 access points, and plans to expand this to 1,000 by year-end.
The areas covered by the network include the Akasaka Prince Hotel and Hotel Okura, the Makuhari Messe convention center, a cafe and five DoCoMo shops and multimedia centers in the city. The expansion plans for the rest of the year include several additional hotels, the domestic Haneda Airport and some central city office buildings.
DoCoMo will charge users ¥2,000 (U$16) per month for unlimited access, which is more expensive than the ¥1,600 charged by NTT Communications.
The wireless LAN network is being built to supplement the carrier's third generation (3G) network, launched late last year. The 3G service, Foma, offers data transmission at speeds of 384K bit/sec over a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access network, with coverage of almost all major metropolitan areas in Japan.
MZone is based on the IEEE802.11b standard and offers data transmission at up to 11M bit/sec. It is the latest of a number of planned commercial wireless LAN services to be launched. Other companies, including competitor Japan Telecom Co. Ltd., are testing their networks and expect to launch services within 2002.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
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