DoCoMo Pulls Up Short

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo postponed its commercial launch by four months, setting up the tiny Isle of Man to be the first in the world to start third-generation, or 3G, mobile phone services.

British Telecommunications subsidiary Manx Telecom has been running neck-and-neck with DoCoMo, the world’s largest mobile Internet operator, to start 3G by the end of May. But software glitches have forced DoCoMo to delay until October, leaving the field clear for the telecom monopoly on this self-governing island halfway between England and Northern Ireland.

“We’ve always had this ambition to be first but not at the expense of launching something that demonstrates 3G is slightly flaky. It’s tight, but it’s looking like we could achieve it,” said Mark Briers, head of 3G at Manx Telecom. If the base stations communicate properly and the new customer billing software doesn’t crash, Manx bankers and farmers will be able to hold videoconferences, check weather forecasts and download games on mobile phones before the technology hits Tokyo.