DoCoMo's mobile Internet system, first popularized in Japan, comprises Web content, applications and handsets compliant with I-mode specifications. It allows users to access a variety of Web-based services over their handsets, such as e-mail, games and mobile commerce.
I-mode, which StarHub will launch in the fourth quarter this year, will provide an advantage over current modes of mobile Net access, said Clontz.
"My experience with (surfing the Internet using a mobile phone or PDA) has been less than satisfactory because depending on what site you go to, it doesn't load up the way you would like it to," Clontz said at a press briefing. "The I-mode platform gives you a predictable, consistent experience every single time. That works to eliminate the frustration you would have in trying to surf the Internet."
He added that the uniformity of the I-mode platform will also "make life very simple" for developers, allowing StarHub to quickly expand its portfolio of mobile content.
Apart from StarHub, DoCoMo has 12 other I-mode partners around the world, including Taiwan's FarEasTone, Australia's Telstra and mmO2 of the U.K, with 3 million I-mode users outside Japan.
StarHub, which will launch 3G services by the first half of this year, is targeting 50,000 I-mode subscribers in the first year of service. It also hopes to boost its ratio of revenues from data services from 15 percent to 25 percent by 2008.
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