NTT DoCoMo Inc. will begin a trial service as early as February to allow subscribers to its FOMA third-generation mobile phone system to communicate with personal computer users on videophones, sources close to the company said Saturday.
The move, with a full service scheduled to start by the end of the year at the earliest, will allow FOMA users to participate, for example, in company meetings even if they are away from their workplaces or to send video images to their family at home from different locations.
At present, FOMA users can see and speak with each other through video monitors attached to handsets for about 50 yen a minute.