DoCoMo USA to Launch MVNO Service
Whoops, we missed this news last week.. DOCOMO USA Wireless 2G service will go live in 50 states on April 6th, details: http://bit.ly/gjI4a9
NTT DoCoMo USA Inc. will on April 6 launch a mobile phone service mainly for Japanese living in the U.S. The firm will rent wireless networks from U.S. carriers known as mobile virtual network operators. KDDI Corp. already offers such a service.
The new service will carry a basic monthly fee of at least 15 dollars and a communications charge of 13 cents per minute for domestic calls. The basic fee will include at least 100 minutes of free calls. The service will be available for three models of phone, including a BlackBerry smartphone made by Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd. via: Nikkei.
DoCoMo USA begins the offer of cellular phone service “DOCOMO USA Wireless” for the Japanese in the United States at 10:00AM, April 6th. The cellular phone service using 2G(GSM/GPRS) network can be used by the monthly sum rental from 15 US dollars in 50 states. The data option service of 10-25 dollars in the monthly sum is prepared. The terminal offers BlackBerry Curve 9300 corresponding to Japanese in addition to Nokia 2720 and Nokia 2730. The text option service, the data option service, and the ISP connection service besides the basic telephone call service can be used.
It is possible to apply even when there are neither United States social security number (SSN) nor the United States credit history. Additionally, “DoCoMo USA campaign” in which the terminal purchase price is discounted because of the campaign code presentation is executed from April 6th to June 30th. In this campaign, it is discounted to 80 US dollars terminal price, contract for one year, to contract for 190 US dollars for two years when it applies by contracting DOCOMO USA Wireless for 1 year or two years, and BlackBerry Curve 9300 is bought when contracting.
The campaign code can be obtained on the pamphlet of DOCOMO USA Wireless distributed with the advertisement and the DoCoMo world counter of the Japanese free paper magazine in New York and the Los Angeles district and the campaign site on DoCoMo USA homepage.
Thanks to Varun at Phone Arena for the tip.. [Eds]