KDDI Corp. of Japan and SK Telecom Co. of South Korea will launch a photo-exchange service for their cell phone customers to coincide with the opening of the World Cup soccer finals on Friday.
The companies are touting the link as the first cross-border, photo-swapping cell phone service in the world, allowing users to send and receive still pictures to the other companies' subscribers.
Photos taken with the built-in cameras on some cell phone models can usually be transmitted only to users of the same service or regular e-mail addresses.
Japan and South Korea are cohosting the games, which will last for a month.
KDDI, which operates the au service, will charge 17 yen per image to South Korea. KDDI is the second-largest telecom firm in Japan. SK Telecom is South Korea's largest.