NTT DoCoMo

(, ) is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase Do Communications Over the Mobile Network, but also means “nowhere anywhere” in Japanese.

DoCoMo was spun off from NTT in August 1991 to take over the mobile cellular operations. DoCoMo provides 2G (MOVA) PDC cellular services in 800 MHz and 1.5 GHz bands (total 34 MHz bandwidth), and 3G (FOMA) W-CDMA services in the 2 GHz (1945-1960 MHz) band. Its businesses also include PHS (Paldio), paging, and satellite. DoCoMo has announced that its PHS services will be phased out over the next few years.

DoCoMo is providing phone, video phone (FOMA and Some PHS), i-mode (internet), and mail (i-mode mail, Short Mail, and SMS).

Customers

NTT DoCoMo is a subsidiary of Japan's incumbent telephone operator NTT. The majority of NTT-DoCoMo's shares are owned by NTT, and the majority of NTT's shares is owned by the Japanese government. It provides wireless voice and data communications to many subscribers in Japan. NTT DoCoMo is the creator of W-CDMA technology, the new de facto global industry standard, as well as the groundbreaking mobile i-mode service.

NTT DoCoMo has more than 50 million customers, which means more than half of Japan’s cellular market. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode®, the world's most popular 2G mobile internet service, which provides e-mail and internet access to over 50 million subscribers, and FOMA®, launched in 2001 as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA.

In addition to wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe and North America, the company is expanding its global reach through strategic alliances with mobile and multimedia service providers in Asia-Pacific and Europe. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM), and New York (DCM) stock exchanges.

i-Mode

i-mode is NTT DoCoMo’s proprietary mobile internet platform and as of October 2005 boasts an astounding 45 million customers. This excludes overseas users over networks in 15 other countries, as of November 2005, through i-mode licensing agreements with cellular phone operators.

With i-mode, mobile phone users get benefits such as mobile reservations, supporting secure transactions and keeping up to date with the latest information. They're able to get easy access to thousands of Internet sites, as well as specialized services such as e-mail, online shopping, mobile banking, ticket reservations, and restaurant reviews. Mobile users can access sites from anywhere in Japan, and at unusually low rates, because their charges are based on the volume of data transmitted, not the airtime. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode network structure not only provides access to i-mode and i-mode-compatible content through the Internet, but also provides access through a dedicated leased-line circuit for added security.

FOMA

DoCoMo was the first mobile operator in the world to commercially roll-out 3G mobile communications. DoCoMo's 3G services are marketed under the brand FOMA. At present (2005) FOMA uses wCDMA technology with a data rate of 384 kbit/s. Since DoCoMo was the first carrier to roll out 3G network technology, DoCoMo used technologies different from the European UMTS standards, which were not ready early enough for DoCoMo's roll-out. Recently DoCoMo is working to modify FOMA to conform fully with UMTS standards over time.

HSDPA

DoCoMo is working to upgrade the data rates towards 10 Mbit/s using HSDPA.

Ownership

NTT DoCoMo's shares are publicly traded on several stock exchanges, with the major shareholder (over 60%) being Japan's incumbent operator NTT. NTT is also a publicly traded corporation and the majority share holder is the Government of Japan.

R&D

While most mobile operators globally do not perform any significant R&D and rely on equipment suppliers for the development and supply of new communication equipment, NTT DoCoMo continues the NTT tradition of very extensive R&D efforts. It was mainly DoCoMo's strong R&D investments, which allowed DoCoMo to introduce 3G communications and i-Mode data services long before such services were introduced anywhere else in the world.

DoCoMo's investments outside Japan

NTT DoCoMo has a wide range of foreign investments. However, NTT DoCoMo was not successful in investing in foreign carriers. DoCoMo had invested very large multi-billion dollar amounts in KPN, Hutchison Telecom (included 3, Hutch, etc.), KTF, AT&T Wireless, and had to write-off or sell all these investments in foreign carriers. As a result, DoCoMo booked a total of about US$ 10 billion in losses, while during the same time DoCoMo's Japan operations were profitable.

External links

Telecommunication companies of Japan | Mobile phone companies

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