DoCoMo’s revolutionary new cell phone service with smart-card handsets can be used for a variety of unprecedented functions, including train pass, debit card, credit card and personal identification card, applications previously possible only with IC-equipped smart cards.

The handsets are equipped, for example, to use Sony’s Edy e-money system for purchases at 9,000 participating shops in Japan. Current balances and payment records can be viewed using the handsets.



Initially, 39 mobile service providers will offer m-wallet functions via the i-mode FeliCa Service. Customers will go to the providers’ websites and download i-appliâ„¢ applications to use these functions with their DoCoMo i-mode smart-card handsets.



DoCoMo previewed the i-mode FeliCa Service for six months beginning last December using mobile phones equipped with Sony Corporation’s FeliCa smart card technology.



The new i-mode FeliCa Service and i-mode smart-card handsets are among the latest examples of how DoCoMo is expanding the scope of wireless culture, turning i-mode mobile phones into multifunctional tools for everyday life.



More here.