[Vodafone's Japanese J-Phone unit launches commercial 3G services today.]

by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Kirstin Ridley, Tokyo/London -- "J-Phone's twice-delayed 3G service is unlikely to lure large numbers of tech-savvy Japanese users in the initial phase, analysts said, because mobile Internet and the company's hugely popular camera phone service will not be available on the 3G platform until next summer.

Its goals are ambitious, however.

J-Phone aims to sign up one million 3G users by March 2004 -- a lofty target said some market specialists, pointing out that its larger domestic rival NTT DoCoMo Inc has won only 149,000 users in its 14 months of 3G operation."

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