Japan's dominant cell carrier NTT DoCoMo on Monday said it has started BlackBerry Internet Service, giving the carrier its first implementation of Research in Motion's push e-mail network for home users as well as for small companies that don't require their own servers. The service needs a specific phone, the BlackBerry 8707h, but supports both e-mail and web access on the provider's cellular network.

The company intends to start offering the 8707h and the BlackBerry service on August 1st, with the messaging plan running for $28 per month after tax but before including separate voice or data plans. A generic BlackBerry Data Transmission plan will cost $16 per month and makes the unusual move of basing data use on packets: the plan allows for 80,000 data packet transfers (at an unknown size) with more transfers costing extra.