The Japanese carrier’s president Haruo Murakami, reassured shareholders and customers that the delay was due to the time needed to adopt a slightly better 3G standard set by the Third Generation Partnership Project (G3PP) and not because of high costs.

Members of the G3PP include Japan Telecom, Vodafone, DoCoMo, Nokia Oyj Abp, and NEC Corp. who meet quarterly to coordinate technical specifications.

Japan Telecom’s J-Phone wireless unit will have to upgrade handsets by rewriting software or replacing them, and incur high-costs, J-Phone’s chief technical Takeshi Hashino told Reuter reporters.

Chief rival NTT DoCoMo operating the i-mode service reaffirmed that it plans to roll out its 3G services in Tokyo as scheduled in May and then played down any upgrades with respect to its initial 3G handsets.

The announcement comes on the heels of Vodafone Groups Plc increased stake in the Japan Telecom. Some analyst say that the delay will strengthen links between the two carriers such as aligning their 3G timetables and reducing costs by using the same facilities.

Even though Japan Telecom will now be a year behind DoCoMo in offering 3G services to its Japanese subscribers, it will still be ahead of the European telecoms. After spending billions on 3G licenses, these cash-strapped telecoms are resolved to the fact that they will have to delay the deployment of 3G networks and handsets.