J-Phone Announces Global Rental

J-PHONE Co., Ltd., to be renamed Vodafone K.K. tomorrow, announced today that on October 1 it will launch Vodafone Global Rental, a mobile handset rental service for visitors to Japan. With this offering, visitors who come to Japan either on business or pleasure can now enjoy the same communication services that they do at home. Vodafone Global Rental is not just a mobile handset rental service for visitors toJapan-customers of overseas mobile operators who have roaming agreements with J-PHONE(currently 110 operators in 79 countries and areas) can enjoy voice, SMS and packetroaming in Japan by simply inserting their GSM SIM card into a 3G rental handset, a firstin the Japanese market.

Vodafone Global Rental services will be managed by Australia-based GSM Rentafone Pty Ltd.(Japan Branch), a rental company that has a tie up with J-PHONE.

To provide its customers with a service environment similar to their home country’s whileroaming abroad, J-PHONE will launch a Short Code (designated number) service wherebysimply dialing 151, J-PHONE customers can access the international call center whileabroad. The service will be available on Vodafone networks in five countries at the timeof launch with further expansion scheduled thereafter. In addition, visitors to Japanroaming on the J-PHONE network with Vodafone Global Rental will be able to enjoy a similarservice environment. Customers will be informed of available Short Codes automatically bySMS in their Welcome Message when visiting a roaming partner network.

On the day of its company name change to Vodafone on October 1, J-PHONE is furtherbreaking down the barriers of mobile communication with new global services.For more information, please contact:
Matthew Nicholson
J-PHONE Public Relations
Tel: +81 3 6403 1000
J-PHONE: +81 90 6010 4034
E-mail: matthew.nicholson@j-phone.com
URL: http://www.j-phone.com