NTT DoCoMo

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. (株式会社エヌ・ティ・ティ・ドコモ, Kabushiki-gaisha Enutiti Dokomo?, TYO: 9437, NYSE: DCM, LSE: NDCM) is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase Do Communications Over the Mobile Network, and is also a play on dokomo, meaning “everywhere” in Japanese.

DoCoMo was spun off from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (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 provides phone, video phone (FOMA and Some PHS), i-mode (internet), and mail (i-mode mail, Short Mail, and SMS) services.


Customers
-----------------------------
NTT DoCoMo is a subsidiary of Japan's incumbent telephone operator NTT. The majority of NTT-DoCoMo's shares are owned by NTT (which is 31% to 55% government-owned). While some NTT shares are publicly traded, control of the company by Japanese interests (Government and civilian) is guaranteed by the number of shares available to buyers. It provides wireless voice and data communications to many subscribers in Japan. NTT DoCoMo is the creator of W-CDMA technology as well as 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 mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode 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.

Services
-----------------------------------------------------
i-mode
i-mode is NTT DoCoMo’s proprietary mobile internet platform and as of October 2006 boasts 47 million customers in Japan. 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. Doja the Java environment specification for i-mode adds further functionality.

Takeshi Natsuno won the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award in 2002 for his innovative strategical work on i-mode.
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 14.4 Mbit/s using HSDPA. Up to 3.6 Mbit/s per cell in the downlink service has launched in August 2005

Ownership
-----------------------------------------------------
NTT DoCoMo's shares are publicly traded on several stock exchanges, with the major shareholder (over 55%) 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.

Access DoCoMo outside Japan
-----------------------------------------------------

DoCoMo/Vodafone PDC phones
PDC phones do not work in foreign countries. PDC is deployed only in Japan.
Most DoCoMo "FOMA" phones (except roaming-ready models) and Vodafone Japan 802N, 703N and 905SH
These are W-CDMA-only phones, so they cannot be used with GSM networks. Also note that they cannot be used with a foreign operator's subscription because they do not accept other operators' SIM cards.
Vodafone 3G phones (except 802N, 703N and 905SH) and DoCoMo "FOMA" roaming-ready phones These phones will work with foreign GSM networks (with the exception of the 903i and 904i series which only have WCDMA roaming capability). However, they cannot be used with a foreign operator's subscription until they are unlocked. This can be done for the N900iG, the M1000, and most of the Vodafone-branded 3G phones (except the 904SH and the 705SH).
KDDI phones can not be used outside Japan, with the exception of the Global Passport models. Those cannot be used locally on non-Japanese networks, however, because of the use of a non-standard ESN (5 letters followed by 6 numbers).
Much like U.S. CDMA phones, Japanese phones are designed for their respective operators (except recent Vodafone 3G phones) and will not work with a foreign operator's subscription. In other words, the fact that a Japanese phone is technically capable of working in a foreign country does not mean it can be used with a local operator's service out of the box.

Read More......