Technology Apr. 30, 2009 - 06:24AM JST ( 7 )

TOKYO —

NTT DoCoMo on Wednesday announced a series of new initiatives in fields including customer satisfaction and corporate social responsibility. DoCoMo users will pay lower basic charges for the flat-rate data plans “Pake-hodai double” and “Biz-hodai double.” Beginning May 1, the entry-level basic monthly charges for both plans will be reduced to 490 yen from 1,029 yen, enabling customers to save on data communication charges.

Subscribers to the group-discount plans “Family Discount” or “Office Discount” no longer will be charged for receiving large-volume i-mode mails, such as those with video attachments or deco-mail formatting, from people covered under the same group contract.

Two new flat-rate data communications plans for PC users, “Flat-rate Data Standard” and “Flat-rate Data Standard Value,” will begin July 1. In the case of two-year contracts, the basic monthly charges will start as low as 1,000 yen for Flat-rate Data Standard and 1,735 yen for Flat-rate Data Standard Value.

The Mobile Phone Checking Service will be launched at docomo shops on July 1 to provide free basic after-care, including checkups, minor repairs and consulting to help customers maintain their mobile phones in the best possible condition. Further, DOCOMO Premier Club will offer members the option of receiving a free portable charger in addition to the ongoing battery-pack giveaway option as part of a customer-loyalty promotion.

DoCoMo will open service counters in London in May and New York in September to provide support to customers visiting these locations for leisure, business or study. DoCoMo already operates service counters in Japanese airports, as well as in Hawaii since 2005.

Among corporate social responsibility initiatives, Mobile Phone Safety Classes, a program DoCoMo launched in 2004 to dispatch instructors to schools and communities to talk about the responsible use of mobile phones, will begin providing DVDs about basic phone manners, how spam mail works, etc to about 33,000 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. Nearly 1.5 million students have participated the program to date.

In response to Japan’s enactment of new legislation from April 1 to protect youths from harmful online sites, on the same day DoCoMo began applying the i-mode Filter service on a default basis to new i-mode subscribers under the age of 20 to restrict their access to such sites. DoCoMo already offers the Access Restriction service to enable parents or legal guardians to select their minors’ level of access to dating sites and other potentially harmful sites.

Other initiatives include upgrades to i-concier service. The i-concier service, which provides customers with highly personalized information and support, is being upgraded with GPS and location-based information. In addition to personalized traffic and weather updates, the service will newly provide coupons to restaurants and information about shopping in locations frequented by the user. In addition, the service will be further upgraded with information about favorite sports teams and musical artists. Subscriptions to the service exceeded one million as of April 11.

JCN