What is NTT DoCoMo?
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (Kabushiki-gaisha
Enutiti Dokomo) 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.
Powered by wikipedia
Material URL: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTT_DoCoMo)