America Online Inc. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Wednesday in Tokyo that they will form a strategic alliance to integrate their wireless and fixed-line Internet services, with NTT DoCoMo becoming AOL Japan's top shareholder.
The two companies will develop next-generation technologies to merge cellular-based and personal computer-based Internet services, with the aim of offering them worldwide, the companies said.
The first test case will be the Japanese market, which has more than 55 million cellphone users, 11.09 million of whom subscribe to DoCoMo's i-mode, the world's first Internet-browsing and e-mail service based on mobile phones.