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TOTAL SUBSCRIBERS OF DDI, DDI-CELLULAR GROUP, TU-KA GROUP AND IDOS
WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS SERVICES EZWEB AND EZACCESS, USING PHONE.COMS
UP.LINK SERVER EXCEEDS ONE MILLION IN JAPAN
Use of Phone.com's UP.Browser-enabled Mobile Phones Rapidly Increases
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and TOKYO, Japan (March 8, 2000) ¾ Phone.com,
Inc. (Nasdaq: PHCM), a leading provider of mobile Internet software
and services, today announced that the total number of subscribers of
DDI, DDI-Cellular Group, TU-KA Group and IDO's wireless Internet
access services "EZweb" and "EZaccess," using the Phone.com(TM)
UP.Link(TM) Server Suite, has now exceeded 1 million in Japan.
EZweb and EZaccess are wireless Internet access services using
Phone.com's UP.Link Server Suite that are provided by DDI,
DDI-Cellular Group, TU-KA Group and IDO. Internet-based content such
as email, news, stock, weather, movies, concerts, travel, sports and
other information can be accessed through Wireless Application
Protocol (WAP)-enabled mobile phones that include the Phone.com
UP.Browser(TM) microbrowser. DDI, DDI-Cellular Group, TU-KA Group and
IDO are providing approximately 200 content sites for each service, in
addition to sites that have been created by individual and content
providers that are not listed on the menu. The additional sites can be
accessed by typing the URL directly or found by using search engines.
DDI, DDI-Cellular Group, TU-KA Group and IDO introduced the EZweb and
EZaccess services in April 1999-allowing subscribers to access the
Internet through their mobile phones. As of March 8, 2000, the number
of subscribers has exceeded 1 million. Currently, there are 13
UP.Browser-enabled mobile phone models. The phones are available from
Hitachi, Denso, Toshiba, Casio, Sanyo, Sony and Kyocera.
"We are very pleased to see that the number of DDI, DDI-Cellular
Group, TU-KA Group and IDO's EZweb and EZaccess users has reached one
million," said Kazuhiko Ishii, general manager of Phone.com Japan. "As
business grows, it is expected that we will continue to see content
that is geared towards the Internet-enabled mobile phone user. Content
developers in Japan can not only target local users but there are
opportunities to access users overseas-and an opportunity for network
operators to gain additional subscribers."
About DDI
DDI, the 2nd largest telecommunications carrier in Japan provides long
distance, international telephone, Internet connection, mobile phone,
and PHS services. With respect to mobile phone services, DDI provides
services through the DDI-Cellular Group, which consists of eight
subsidiaries covering areas outside the Tokyo and Tokai regions. The
number of subscribers reached 6.16 million as of February 2000. The
three companies in the TU-KA Group that are newly-affiliated with DDI
since October 1, 1999, providing services in the Tokyo, Tokai and
Kansai areas, and the TU-KA group had 3.41 million subscribers as of
February 2000.
About IDO
IDO is a mobile phone service provider founded in March 1987 primarily
by Toyota Motor Corporation and Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. Having
its business in the Tokyo and Tokai areas, the center of the Japanese
economy, IDO established a tie-up relationship with DDI-Cellular Group
for the introduction of new cdmaOnce services which began in April
1999 and built a seamless nationwide network. The number of IDO
subscribers using the digital PDC method and cdmaOne has reached 3.84
million. This year, in addition to the high-speed PacketOne data
communications service, IDO plans to begin offering an international
cdmaOne-based roaming service to connect countries starting with Korea
and Hong Kong.
About Phone.com
Phone.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:PHCM) is a leading provider of software and
services that enable the delivery of Internet-based information
services to mass-market wireless telephones. Using its software,
wireless subscribers have access to Internet- and corporate
intranet-based services, including Email, news, stocks, weather,
travel and sports. In addition, subscribers have access via their
wireless telephones to network operators' intranet-based telephony
services, which may include over-the-air activation, call management,
billing history information, pricing plan subscription and voice
message management. Phone.com is headquartered in Silicon Valley,
California and has regional offices in Belfast, Copenhagen, Hong Kong,
London, Seoul and Tokyo. Visit http://www.phone.com for more
information.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters
discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements
involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements.
Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to,
Phone.com's limited operating history, potential fluctuations in
Phone.com's operating results, uncertainties related to Phone.com's
long sales cycle and reliance on a small number of customers,
Phone.com's dependence on the acceptance of its products by network
operators and wireless subscribers, Phone.com's ability to adequately
address the rapidly-evolving market for delivery of Internet-based
services through wireless telephones, the need to achieve widespread
integration of Phone.com's browser in wireless telephones, competition
from companies with substantially greater financial, technical,
marketing and distribution resources and the ability of Phone.com to
manage a complex set of engineering, marketing and distribution
relationships. Further information regarding these and other risks are
included in Phone.com's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the
quarters ended September 30, 1999 and December 31, 1999, in its
prospectus dated November 16, 1999 and in its other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
# # #
Phone.com, the Phone.com name and logo, MyPhone and the family of
terms carrying the "UP." prefix are trademarks of Phone.com, Inc. All
Rights Reserved. All other company, brand and product names may be
marks that are the sole property of their respective owners.
For further information:
Contact Phone.com Worldwide Public Relations
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Phone.com, Inc.
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94063 USA
+1 650 562 0200 TEL
+1 650 817 1499 FAX
IN EUROPE
Phone.com (Europe) Limited
Maple House, High Street
Potters Bar Hertfordshire
EN6 5BS United Kingdom
+44 (0)1707 828 051 TEL
+44 (0)1707 828 080 FAX
IN JAPAN
Phone.com Japan K.K.
11F Green Tower Building. 6-14-1
Nishi-Shinjuku Shinjuku-Ku
Tokyo 160-0023
JAPAN
+81 3 5325 9211 Tel
+81 3 5325 9021 Fax
