NTT Docomo to offer extended Twitter functionality; increases Philippine investment

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Japanese mobile market-leader NTT Docomo announced this morning it has reached an agreement with Twitter to deeply embed the social networking service into its feature phones and smartphones.

 One of the envisioned services will see real-time ‘Tweets’ and other Twitter content added to the search results on the Docomo ‘i-mode’ portal for feature phones and the ‘docomo market’ portal for smartphones. 

The operator also plans to update an existing ‘touch and follow’ application, which will allow Docomo customers with Twitter accounts to begin following each other by simply touching NFC-enabled devices together. Docomo expects to launch the Twitter service for feature phones this summer and for smartphones later this year or early next year.

Docomo announced separately today that it has signed an option agreement with JG Summit Holdings to acquire a further 2 percent of shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), the country’s largest operator. 


The shares are valued at around US$263 million and the purchase is aimed at maintaining the Japanese firm's cumulative stake at about 20 percent following PLDT’s planned acquisition of a majority stake in Digital Telecommunications Philippines. Docomo, which has been an investor in PLDT since March 2006, said it aims to “further strengthen its operational ties with PLDT and [PLDT’s] wholly-owned mobile subsidiary Smart Communications” moving forward.