NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan"s dominant mobile phone company, said on Thursday it will begin offering third-generation (3G) wireless data services in four U.S. cities with AT&T Wireless Services Inc by December 2004.
The service, which offers high-speed Internet access and face-to-face video calling, will be launched in San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas and San Diego.
It will be the first deployment of 3G wireless data services based on the high-speed W-CDMA (wideband code division multiple access) format, DoCoMo said.
DoCoMo has until now struggled to attract customers to its year-old 3G service, the world"s first using the W-CDMA format, but has expressed high hopes that it would become a new driver of profit growth.
Despite features like face-to-face video phone calling and fast downloading from the Internet, users have been put off by frequent battery recharges, a limited coverage area and high handset prices.
To tackle these obstacles, DoCoMo this month rolled out 3G mobile phones with a much longer battery life -- 170 to 180 hours in standby mode compared with 125 hours in its last model -- and promised more improvements next year.
DoCoMo"s 3G network now covers over 80 percent of Japan"s population and is set to reach 90 percent by next March.
Rival KDDI Corp"s 3G phones typically last up to 200 hours or more between recharges, and with its wider coverage the number-two mobile operator has amassed four million 3G subscribers compared with around 150,000 for DoCoMo.
DoCoMo aims to roll out 3G services with international roaming, which would let subscribers make calls overseas.