Japan's top mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, said it will start a next-generation service letting phone users download music videos, aiming to outdo rivals' success with online music. The new service, which will start as soon as June, uses a high-speed data transmission technology to allow downloads at 10 times the speed of DoCoMo's third generation (3G) FOMA handsets.

It will be part of the 3G-pioneering company's so-called "3.5 Generation" telephones.

DoCoMo, despite its early start in 3G, currently allows the download only of partial music clips for ring tones.

Its rivals, KDDI Corp and Vodafone Japan, have already started downloading of whole tunes but without movies.

DoCoMo is also preparing other movie content for its 3.5G handsets but detailed information is not available at this point.