News
i-mode dying out in Europe
Stuart O'Brien Mar 25 2008, 6:27pm
Germany's E-Plus becomes fourth European operator to call time on i-mode services.
E-Plus will shut down its six year-old i-mode service on April 1st, switching users to its generic mobile internet tariff instead.
The news comes after O2 and KPN took decisions to cease i-mode support last summer, while Russian operator MTS closed its i-mode service in February.
i-mode pretty much kicked off the mobile internet when it was launched by Japanese operator DoCoMo as both a technology platform and business model in 1999.
The company subsequently licensed i-mode to operators around the world.
Remaining European operators offering i-mode services are Cosmote in Romania and Greece, Bouygues in France, Telefonica in Spain, Wind in Italy, O2 Ireland, Base in Belgium and Globul in Bulgaria, though many aren't advertising the fact on their websites.
