CosmOTE offers easy access to online services through i-mode
On June 7, CosmOTE clients will be able to enjoy a wide range of services through i-mode technology. «We are certain customers will embrace i-mode… and the data services it offers,» CosmOTE’s chief executive Evangelos Martigopoulos said yesterday during the presentation of the new service to reporters and executives. CosmOTE entered into an alliance with Japanese firm NTT DoCoMo, the originator of the service, in order to introduce i-mode. It is the seventh European mobile services provider to do so: the service was first introduced in Germany, in March 2002, followed by the Netherlands (April 2002), Belgium (October 2002), France (November 2002), Spain (June 2003) and Italy (November 2003). It has existed in Japan since February 1999. It has also been introduced to Taiwan, in June 2002. The services to be offered for i-mode users in Greece include news, the weather, financial news and data, sports news, mobile banking, maps, information on leisure activities, lifestyle and show business, astrology, humor, ringtones, wallpapers, cartoons, games, online buying (including ticket reservations), chat and date services. E-mail can be sent to other phones, PCs and PDAs. Users of i-mode will pay 0.01 euros per kilobyte for data traffic and up to 3 euros as a monthly charge to an official site. There will be no charges for either service up to 15 July as the operator wants to encourage take-up. At the moment, only four phone models, three from NEC and one from Panasonic, are i-mode compatible.
