DoCoMo hangs up European i-mode launch

Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo is having a bad day. Not only has the company said that it is delaying the launch of its i-mode phones in Europe, back in Japan engineers are preparing to fix 100,000 i-mode phones suffering from the latest in a long line of technical glitches.

The company also announced that it is uncertain as to when it will be able to roll out the i-mode service in Europe, which was originally set for October. According to reports, the delays stem from DoCoMo's European partner KPN Mobile.

It is thought that the mobile subsidiary of Dutch firm Royal KPN is in financial difficulties, which may be affecting the launch.

The i-mode service is also being hampered in Japan. DoCoMo is in the process of repairing the faulty Panasonic handsets that were unable to receive calls in certain geographical locations and will temporarily halt sales of the phones.

The company said that the Panasonic P503i Hyper series handsets had a technical glitch in the microprocessor - the second one in five months - albeit an easily correctable one.

DoCoMo, which has sold more than 800,000 of the phones in the last few months, said: "As handsets become more advanced, more and more points need to be checked and there are many things that cannot be anticipated."