IN THE WRONG MODE

DoCoMo in Kokomo? That's what we want to know. When DoCoMo teamed up with AT&T Wireless last year in a deal that saw the Asian Internet applications king invest in the American wireless giant, it seemed that DoCoMo's i-mode services might be just around the corner for millions of users in the U.S. However, we have yet to see that happen, or even see the carrier partners explain what their plans are for i-mode in the U.S. DoCoMo was set to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange last Friday in what is being positioned as an attempt to raise money for DoCoMo's U.S. expansion, among other things. From its early launch in Japan, DoCoMo has successfully managed to separate itself from a pack of carrier stragglers attempting to bring next-generation wireless services to fruition. The carriers at the very back of that pack are the ones from the U.S., and DoCoMo has had plenty of time to show them and their users what next-generation services are all about. Now the U.S. carriers are beginning to pick up the slack, with Verizon — rather than DoCoMo partner AT&T — leading the way. AT&T has made a splash with its mLife ad campaign and has hinted at i-mode-like services that will fill out the mLife brand in the future. But to date, DoCoMo's progress with i-mode in the U.S. has been uninspired. It may be losing the considerable edge it once had over the poor U.S carriers, an embarrassing notion for the world's most successful wireless Internet service thus far.