Telecommunications companies, trading houses and a variety of other Japanese businesses are stepping up efforts to develop an electronic account settlement system combining cellular phones and wireless data transmission technologies.

Under such a system, users will be able to settle purchases over the counter by inputting their PINs from their cell phones.

In cooperation with Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. and Itochu Corp., NTT DoCoMo Inc. will begin a test in the summer to enable consumers to buy canned juice over its i-mode Internet access service.

The J-Phone group will join forces with JCB Co. and Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd. to begin a service in autumn to enable users to settle online purchases and make payments at restaurants from their cell phones.

The KDDI Corp. group is also developing a cell-phone-based settlement system in cooperation with Fujitsu Ltd. and Citibank.