Posted on: Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Someday, cell phones may be as good as cash

By Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press

TOKYO — Sony Corp. and Japan's top mobile-phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, plan to develop a system that will allow people to use their cell phones to pay for train tickets or buy items in stores.

They plan to create a FeliCa Networks joint venture, to be set up in Tokyo in January, that will develop a new chip that integrates mobile phones with smart-card technology developed by Sony, the companies said yesterday.

The smart cards, which have an integrated circuit chip embedded in them, can communicate with special equipment that allows card owners to pass through train station gates or make payments at cash registers in stores.

Sony will be a 60 percent investor in the $55 million venture, and NTT DoCoMo will invest the other 40 percent.

NTT DoCoMo plans to test the service with 6,000 mobile phones in December in Japan, and handsets with the technology will probably go on sale here by the middle of next year, officials said.

NTT DoCoMo has scored success in Japan with its Internet-linking mobile-phone service called "i-mode," which has 40 million users.

"DoCoMo is credited with changing the cell phones of the world with i-mode," said Sony chief executive Nobuyuki Idei.

Sony's FeliCa smart-card technology, developed in 1988, is widely used in Japanese train systems and is also used in Hong Kong.

Promoters believe the FeliCa technology has the potential to grow into a global standard, and NTT DoCoMo said it hopes to offer the service overseas.