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| Press Release |
November
6, 1998 |
| DDI
POCKET Establishes P-mail DX Center, Provides PHS E-mail
and Information Services without ISP |
DDI TOKYO
POCKET, Inc. and other eight companies of the DDI POCKET
group will establish a main facility, named P-mail DX
(Delux) Center, to upgrade the P-mail DX (transmission
of up to 1,000 characters) and P-mail (up to 20 characters),
and provide high-grade text transmission services.
With the establishment of P-mail DX Center, two additional
services will be provided. They will be available when
DDI POCKET receives the approval of the Minister of Posts
and Telecommunications and preparations are complete. |
The Mail Service, scheduled
for launch on December 1, 1998, enables users to receive
and send e-mails with a handset that supports the P-mail
DX service. From the handset, users are able to register
an e-mail address, and set up a mail box dedicated to
each user, send to and receive e-mails. The main feature
of the service enables the exchange of e-mails easily
without subscribing to an ISP or own a PC.
The fee for sending and receiving e-mails is 10 yen for
30 seconds, regardless of time or distance of the e-mail's
travel. There is no base charge for the e-mail service.
A Mail Notification Service, scheduled for launch in February
1999, is an optional service that notifies users of their
mail box status by P-mail (note). When users get a new
mail, or there are e-mail messages that have not been
opened for a long time, they will be notified.
The fee for E-Mail Notification Service is 10 yen per
one notification. There is no base charge. |
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P-mail is a functionality
to send to and receive messages from PHS of up to 20 characters |
The communications fees
for the information service are 12 yen/minute to 15 yen/minute
depending on the time of access. There will also be free
content as well as content on fee.
The communications fees and content access fees for Mail
Service and Information Service are uniform for all users,
regardless of their choice of communications fee plans
that include Standard Course, Hiru Toku Course, or Okigaru
Course. |
The Mail Service enables
users to send and receive e-mails on a handset that supports
P-mail DX. They access P-mail DX center, and by simply
signing up with the service online, will be assigned an
e-mail address. They will also have their own mail box,
and do not need to subscriber to an ISP separately. Off
course, they can also receive from and send e-mails to
other devices connected to the Internet.
Communications fees: 10 yen/30 seconds regardless of time
of access or distances (No registeration fee or monthly
basic fees required.)
Chinese characters, Japanese hiragana and katakana characters,
Roman numerals and alphabets, and symbols to approximately
1,000 characters, are accommodated. E-mail Addresses will
follow a ****@pdx.ne.jp format. Bundle names **** could
be a combination of 4 to 20 alphabets in small letters,
or numbers, and symbols, unique to each user. The first
letter needs to be an alphabet and _ and - can be used
as well as letters and numbers.
Mail Box Capacity is 1 MB - up to 500 e-mails with approximately
1,000 characters - per user, with 31 day retention for
each mail including the day received.
Other convenient features include a 'send to all' function,
to send a message to several e-mail addresses, a schedule
function, to send a message automatically on a specified
date and time, and a mail transfer function, for transferring
e-mails to another address.
The optional Mail Notification Service notifies users
the status of their mail box by sending a Pmail directly
to the PHS handset. Each notification costs 10 yen, but
there is no monthly base charge. Users can apply for the
service from their handsets. Set-up includes: |
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Notifying new
e-mails received. |
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Notifying unread
messages - Mail boxes are checked every 24 hours and users
are notified if there are unread messages. |
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Notifying messages
will be deleted - Mail boxes are checked every 24 hours
and if there is a message that has not been opened for
24 days, users are notified. |
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Notifying
mail boxes are full. |
| 2. Information Service
Details |
The Information Service
enables users to retrieve various text data on handsets
that support P-mail DX. From the latest news, stock price
information and other business news to CD ranking, ticket
information and fortune telling for consumers, various
information is available. Among the content, there is
free content that require only communications fees, and
content that require additional content fee. Non-subscribers
to Mail Service can access Information Service as well.
With paid content provided by DDI POCKET, the fees will
be collected by DDI POCKET, by billing users together
with their communications fees. Content fees vary according
to the content. Communications fees in the no distance
category are 12 yen/minute from 3 :00 to 17:00, and 15
yen/minute outside of these hours. The Content fee schedule
is in preparation. |
| Content Menu (scheduled
to begin in December) |
| Type |
Description |
| News |
Major
news |
| Sports
news |
Professional
baseball, J League soccer flash news, etc |
| Weather |
Weather
forecast of today and for the week |
| Stock
Price |
Stock
market of the day |
| Snow
Conditions |
Snow
conditions in the ski tracks/grounds nationwide
and available |
| Tide
Conditions |
Tide
chart, wind speed and conditions of beaches nationwide |
| Town
Page Phone Directory |
Ambiguous
search accommodated |
| Variety |
Fortune
telling and chats |
| CD
Ranking |
Weekly
ranking of CDs |
| Ticket
Information |
Recommended
events to go |
| Pachinko
Information |
Guide
to new pachinko parlors |
| Fishing/Bass
Fishing Information |
Information
on conditions at major fishing spots |
| News
from POCKET |
Updates
from DDI POCKET |
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There is free
and fee-based content and content. |
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The launch
date of the content varies. |
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More content
will be added after December 1998. |
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