Telstra and 02 Ending i-mode Service
According to Reuters, UK-based O2 and Australia’s Telstra Corp. said on Tuesday they would end NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode Internet phone service. Mobile phone operator O2, which is owned by Spain’s Telefonica said the limited range of devices that carried the service had restricted its growth. O2 will continue to support the service for the next two years but will not launch any new i-mode handsets from July 2007, it said.
In a separate statement, telecoms carrier Telstra said on its Web site it would pull the plug on the service on Dec. 10, explaining that many of the features of i-mode were available on its “BigPond” mobile service. Telstra would be the first carrier to quit i-mode. On Tuesday 02 said it had around 260,000 active users.