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The unofficial independent imode FAQ
11. Email, short messaging (SMS), Message-Free, Message-Request
11.1 Is there email on imode?
Yes there are a number of different email related services on imode:
(a) email, (b) short messages or SMS (in the case of FOMA/3G), (c) Message-Free, (d) Message-Request
email on imode is just like ordinary internet email, and imode users can send and
receive email to and from any internet email address in the world. There are a few limits:
for the standard service 2G imode emails have to be shorter than 250 Kanji (double byte characters), or
shorter than 500 Roman Characters (single byte characters), on 3G/FOMA these limits are
much higher. If you send an email longer than
the limit to an imode user, DoCoMo's imode center will cut off any part of the message beyond this
limit and attach a warning notice to the user notifying the user of this deletion. In the case of 2G (mova), attachments
are not sent to the imode subscriber but are discarded at the imode center. In the case of 3G/FOMA some types
of attachements can be forwarded to handsets.
Email is the most popular application of imode. Users can switch off email, if they
don't want to use email, but most users send many emails every day.
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11.3 How can I use email on imode?
The precise method will depend on your imode handset. But normally you will need
to press the "imode" button on your imode enabled handset, a menu will appear,
and one of the menu items will be "mail" (in Japanese or English characters
as the case may be). You select "mail" and follow the instructions.
Many handsets have a dedicated mail button which takes you directly to the mail menu.
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11.4 Is there SMS (Short message service) on imode?
2G/mova: Yes there is - it is called iMS. The iMS service on DoCoMo's phone system is somewhat different than the
email service on imode. iMS service can be sent directly to other DoCoMo phones, which
subscribe to DoCoMo's iMS service, but which do not necessarily need to subscribe to
imode. The limits and characteristics of iMS messages are
somewhat different than email on imode, billing costs are also a little different.
When sending an email message to another DoCoMo phone
by entering the destination's telephone number, the sender can chose whether to send via
imode email (imode mail) or via iMS (short mail). 3G/FOMA: SMS is installed on FOMA, however it is far less flexible and more expensive than email, and
according to our information it is not used much.
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11.5 I am a European SMS user and want to send an SMS message to
a friend in Japan. How can I do that?
To our knowledge the European SMS systems are not directly linked to Japan's mobile
message systems. However, imode users who do not explicitely cancel their
email connection can receive internet emails directly to their handset. So as a
European SMS user, you can send an email to your friend's DoCoMo handset from
any PC with internet connection. i-mode users have emails such as xyz@docomo.ne.jp.
Vodafone has some limited international connectivity for SMS, between a limited number
of countries and Japan. Costs for this service are high.
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11.6 What is "message-request" and "message-free"?
These are opt-in message services which are either free "message-free"
or paid "message-request" by the user. Such services are often called
PUSH services, since the information is pushed to the user, rather than pulled in
by the user.
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11.7 Are there premium email services?
Yes, users can subscribe to enhanced email services, e.g. Remote-Mail which
allows access to PC based mailboxes from i-mode.
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11.8 I want to send photographs from USA to my friend in Japan via Email to
xyz@docomo.co.jp. Understand I cannot send attachments. Can you tell
me how to do this and what format the photos need to be in BMP, JPEG, etc?
1. "xyz@docomo.co.jp" is not a valid imode email address
("xyz@docomo.co.jp" addresses are used by DoCoMo employees not by
customers). imode email addresses
all end with "@docomo.ne.jp". So you have to ask your friend for the correct email
address, or better ask him or her to send you an email, so you can reply without retyping the
email address.
2. You are right that you cannot send attachments in the case of 2G. You need to store the images on a website,
and then send the URL to your friend who can click on the URL-link and view the images on
the site to which this URL points. You can either do this by hand, if you maintain a
personal homepage, and there are also commercial services which perform this service.
If your friend in Japan has a 3G/FOMA phone you can send image attachements in jpeg and gif
format directly to the handset.
3. Originally i-mode phones only supported gif and animated gifs, i.e. you can also send your
friend short animationed gifs.
4. More recent i-mode phones also support jpeg images.
5. There is a maximum data size of the image files you can send. This size limit used to be 5 kbyte,
and you better check with your friend which handset he/she uses. If your image files are larger
than the limit the handsets will not be able to display them, but will deliver an error message.
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11.9 Does DoCoMo offer mobile email services beyond imode?
Yes, DoCoMo offers a variety of email based services beyond imode, including
email services for images: users can send each other photographs etc.
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