Users of NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s FOMA service will be able to make and receive video calls between Japan and Britain beginning Oct. 1.
The first international videophone service offered by a Japanese cell phone operator will be conducted jointly with Hutchison 3G UK.
The new service will cost E2 per 10 seconds Eroughly double the cost of regular cell phone service. FOMA users can place calls to Hutchison subscribers by dialing an 11-digit code followed by a phone number.
Japan's biggest mobile phone operator plans to expand the videophone service to other countries, including Australia and Austria.
"We will consider a hookup with (British wireless giant) Vodafone Group PLC," an NTT DoCoMo official said.
NTT DoCoMo announced the videophone service plan at the WPC Expo 2003, Asia's biggest trade show for personal computers and communications technologies, which started Wednesday at the Nippon Convention Center, better known as Makuhari Messe, in the city of Chiba.
Displaying exhibits by 377 companies, the trade show is expected to attract 300,000 visitors during its run through Saturday.
Hutchison 3G began 3G services in Britain in March in cooperation with NTT DoCoMo.