Japanese mobile phone operator J-Phone, owned by Britain's Vodafone, said it will launch a limited third generation (3G) mobile phone service in June with plans to expand it nationwide by October. The service is due to be launched in limited areas around the capital.
J-Phone will be the last of Japan's big three mobile operators to ride the 3G wave. Rival NTT DoCoMo launched the world's first ever commercial 3G service at the start of October. Japan's second-biggest telecom KDDI is due to launch a similar service in April.
The interactive phones allow users to gain high-speed Internet access, send and receive e-mails, see moving images of who they are talking to, take photographs with their handset and play electronic games.
DoCoMo has said it hopes to attract 150,000 users by April, but a spokesman admitted that the firm had only flogged around 30,000 handsets to-date.
Japan Telecom came under full control of Vodafone after the mobile phone giant increased its stake to 66.7% from 45% last September in a bid to break into the huge Japanese mobile phone market.
