Users of i-mode cellular telephones were unable to use the phone's Internet service for three hours Tuesday, less than a day after a similar disruption, the company said.

All of the roughly 5.46 million NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo) mobile phones that are equipped with i-mode were unable to send or receive data through the service, according to the company.

Normal call making was not affected.

The disruption occurred around 11:40 a.m. after problems arose with the server computer at the company's i-mode center in Tokyo's Ota Ward. The service was restored at 2:52 p.m. after data was changed on the server.

The trouble followed an i-mode service disruption of roughly 2 1/2 hours Monday night. The interruption was caused by a flood of i-mode calls in Kagawa, Tokushima and Ehime prefectures. An estimated 210,000 subscribers were affected.

NTT DoCoMo launched its i-mode service in February 1999. The quick Web-access technology provides mobile-phone users with a range of services, including e-mail.

Users can also browse through 550 i-mode Web sites specially formatted for the i-mode phones' compact displays.

Subscribers are also able to access around 7,000 Web sites not specifically designed for i-mode, reserve concert tickets and make bank remittances.

The number of i-mode subscribers topped five million on March 15 and is increasing at a rate of 250,000 subscribers per week, according to the company.