Vodafone K.K. Launches Disaster Message Board Service

Vodafone K.K. announced that on 27 April it will launch a service that lets customers confirm personal safety information concerning their family and friends via the Vodafone live! mobile internet service in the event of a major disaster, such as a large earthquake. For the two week period of 27 April to 11 May, Vodafone K.K. will offer a trial version of its Disaster Message Board Service so customers can get familiar with the service details and methods of use. After this initial period, the same trial service is scheduled to be available on the first day of every month (excluding the month of January). 

The Disaster Message Board Service on Vodafone live! lets customers in disaster-affected areas register their status by selecting from options like ?gI?fm fine?h or ?gI?fm at the evacuation area?h and input comments in either Japanese or English of up to 100 full-sized characters. In addition, customers can have automatic notifications sent to their family and friends regarding their personal safety information if they pre-register their addresses. Registered information can be confirmed not only on Vodafone live!, but also on non-Vodafone K.K. handsets or on PCs via the internet.

Disaster Message Board Trial Service
- Dates: 27 April 10:00 to 11 May 24:00, 2005 (after that, 1st day of every month [for 24 hours, excluding month of January])
- Details: Registering, confirming and deleting personal safety information (automatic mail notifications cannot be used for trial service)

Accessing the Disaster Message Board
- From Vodafone K.K. handsets Select ?gDisaster Message Board?h on the top page of Vodafone live!
- URL for PCs or non-Vodafone K.K. handsets http://dengon.vodafone.ne.jp/

* Separate communication charges apply when using Disaster Message Board Service
- Vodafone and Vodafone live! are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vodafone Group Plc.
- Vodafone Group is the world?fs leading mobile carrier and as of the end of December 2004, had equity interests in 26 countries and 416.4m venture customers, with a further fourteen partner networks.

About Vodafone K.K.
Vodafone K.K. is a leading mobile operator in Japan with over 15 million customers and a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, the world?fs largest mobile community. The Tokyo-based company offers a wide range of sophisticated mobile voice and data services including Vodafone live!, which provides mail and internet access to 85% of its customers, and pioneered the picture messaging service called Sha-mail first introduced in November 2000. In December 2002, Vodafone K.K. launched the world?fs first commercial 3G W-CDMA service based on 3GPP international standards. Vodafone K.K.?fs 3G service offers its customers rich content and roaming on 155 networks in 116 countries and regions as of 31 March 2005. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.jp

For further information, please contact:
Matthew Nicholson
Vodafone K.K. Public Relations
Tel: 03-6403-1000 (+81-3-6403-1000)
Email: matthew.nicholson@vodafone.com