Sony and DoCoMo to set up a new company to provide mobile phone services using contactless IC

From left, Idei, Sony Chairman and Group CEO; Kawachi, FeliCa Networks President; Tachikawa, NTT DoCoMo President and CEO.

Natsuno, i-mode Planning Department Manager at i-mode Business Division, NTT DoCoMo

Sony and NTT DoCoMo announced on October 28 that they would establish a new company “FeliCa Networks Inc.” by January 2004 to provide services using mobile phones equipped with the contactless IC card technology “FeliCa” developed by Sony.

Both companies organized a press conference in Tokyo to explain the new company. Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's Chairman and Group CEO, Keiji Tachikawa, DoCoMo's President and CEO, as well as Tsuyoshi Natsuno, manager of i-mode Planning Department at i-mode Business Division were present. Idei mentioned “I am thrilled by the unique combination of Sony and DoCoMo”, while Tachikawa expressed his expectation with the following remark: “What we are looking forward to is e-commerce. It is great to be able to use the mobile phone which we always carry with us for e-commerce. The launch of this new company con be considered the first step to a new way of using mobile phones.”

Natsuno said, “Early this year, I said half-jokingly to Mr. Kutaragi of Sony, “Wouldn't it be nice to do business together?”, so I have looked forward to this day. The current i-mode is gradually being linked with real businesses. For instance, i-mode phones are serving as member cards via infrared communications. The 504i series has achieved 10.4 million sets and the 505i 4.3 million, so it means that roughly 15 million users have some kind of card using FeliCa technology. The future is already this near.“ They also announced the schedule for the trial service of i-mode using contactless IC.

Image of a service on a phone terminal using contactless IC	Outline of the trial service
Future schedule	Pictures showing scenes of utilization were also introduced
It was only an image of the future, but there were pictures of terminals with the reader function	When a bill is paid at a restaurant for instance, coupons can be collected easily through the service

FeliCa Networks Inc., the new company to be set up, will provide the platform to realize various services based on mobile phones equipped with Sony's FeliCa contactless IC card technology.

FeliCa is currently used in JR East “Suica”, a commuter ticket in the form of an IC card, and a total of 38 million cards using FeliCa chips have been issued worldwide. The new company will have about 90 employees, and its main business will be to develop devices, and to manage/operate licensing.

The president of the new company is planned to be Shoichi Kawachi, who used to be in charge of products planning for “SO505i” at Sony. At the press conference, Kawachi expressed his determination to “keep providing help so that more services can be offered”. The capital of about 6 billion yen will be 60%-owned by Sony, and 40%-owned by NTT DoCoMo. The reason for setting up a new company instead of a cooperarative agreement is because “Sony manufactures phones. But Sony alone cannot develop this project, and we wanted a neutral approach”, said Idei.

As for the schedule, the new company will be established in January 2004, but before that, trial service of mobile phones equipped with FeliCa will begin in December 2003. A total of 6,000 phone terminals will be used in the trial service, based on two types of existing phones, the “N504iC” and the “SO504iC”, and the trial will be conducted in cooperation with the companies that are providing the specific services. After that, in spring 2004, the technological specifications will be announced, with a target date of summer planned for the launch of phones equipped with FOMA and Mova (PDC) that are also scheduled for sale in the summer.

Outline of FeliCa Networks' business	They will provide technology/platform to various companies

The “SO504iC” that will be used during the trial service. The contactless IC chip is embedded right behind the FeliCa logo, telling users the point to be shown.

After the press conference, a demonstration was conducted using a trial phone terminal. Only the SO504iC was used, but it was equipped with a Mobile FeliCa IC (tentative name)” chip based on FeliCa technology, and we could experience what it would be like to settle bills, or to check-in just by showing the phone.

Several services and functions are offered by one mobile phone equipped with a contactless IC, which is also embedded with a dedicated iAPPLI to enable the viewing of purchase history or charging electronic money via the network. Because it uses Java applications, new functions are planned to be offered only on the 50Xi series and FOMA terminals. However, iAPPLI is only used for management purposes, and it is the IC chip which exchanges signals with the reader to recognize instantly whether it is processing a bill settlement or passing through a ticket gate; so whenever shopping or passing through a ticket gate at a station, the user only needs to show the body of the phone equipped with the IC chip to the reader, and there is no need to start up iAPPLI beforehand.

Many companies will be participating, to function as a platform enabling a wide range of services such as electronic ticketing and membership authentication in addition to the existing uses for commuting ticket and electronic money. Tachikawa expressed his views that after the new service is launched on a full-scale, new DoCoMo phones that will be put on the market will probably be offered with a contactless IC as standard equipment. The new service is not to be implemented by DoCoMo alone, as he pointed out possibilities of cooperation with KDDI and Vodafone, and he also showed the company's aim for building an infrastructure for social and public services.

SO504iC shares the basic functions as SO504i	The i-mode logo on the mat functions as the reader.

iAPPLI menu on the demo terminal	It is a management application, but ticket reservations could be done with it

Electronic money can be replenished via network

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