Europe may have to wait for I-mode. Originally expected to launch its wildly popular mobile Web browsing service in Europe this fall, NTT DoCoMo now says it could postpone the rollout for several months.

In media reports Tuesday morning, an NTT DoCoMo spokesman was quoted as saying that the company was "not yet able to say when it will launch the service" in Europe. Because a joint venture with KPN Mobile aimed at developing I-mode in Europe has not yet been established, the debut of I-mode could be later than expected, the spokesman said.

KPN spokesman Marinus Potman confirmed that a joint venture between the two companies was supposed to be established in March, but that it had not yet been put in place. The joint-venture company is charged with developing an I-mode portal for Europe, he said. However, he denied that the delay in creating the joint venture would translate into a late launch of I-mode here.

"The launch is still for seen by year-end," Potman said. However, he admitted "it depends if there are enough devices available." A lack of phones based on the GPRS standard - a stopgap technology in the run-up to 3G that promises faster data transfer speeds than today's GSM - has already delayed the launch of GRPS services in Europe.

KPN and NTT DoCoMo will likely first launch I-mode services in Germany or the Netherlands, Potman said. In September, the companies plan to announce details about the launch.

Launched in February 1999, I-mode now has more than 25 million subscribers in Japan, and NTT DoCoMo has been eager to expand to other markets. In January 2000, it paid $9.8 billion for a 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless, and then purchased 15 percent of Dutch telco KPN Mobile in May. It also holds a 25 percent stake in Hong Kong's Hutchison Telephone and owns a 20 percent stake in U.K. 3G license holder Hutchison 3G UK Holdings, alongside KPN's 15 percent. All of these companies hold licenses for I-mode, but have not yet rolled out services.

Because of the cooperation between NTT DoCoMo and KPN, the Dutch telco was to play a central role in the launch of I-mode in Europe. However, KPN may now have more pressing worries. The operator is undergoing a massive restructuring, mostly selling off non-core assets, in order to pay a debt of 23 billion euros ($19.5 billion).

For its part, NTT DoCoMo is facing its own problems in Japan, where the launch of its 3G services have been plagued with problems. Already delayed by several months due to a glitch in its 3G network software, NTT DoCoMo announced Tuesday that it is recalling 100,000 advanced mobile Internet handsets due to a technical problem. The company could not be reached to comment.

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