With the rapid increase in the use of cellular phones, personal computers, and Internet services worldwide, it is predicted that needs for multi-media capabilities will grow further, and even in a mobile environment towards the 21st century. Foreseeing such demands, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has been acting as the core for the international standardization initiatives for the next-generation mobile communications system (IMT-2000). IMT-2000 will be designed to realize mobile multi-media services. Studies on the third generation system has been actively pursued in the domestic arena as well, with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), and Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) playing a central role. NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc. (NTT DoCoMo; Kouji Ohboshi, President; Capital: 15.882 billion) made a judgement from an early stage that Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) is the optimum radio interface technology for implementing IMT-2000 services. In 1996, NTT DoCoMo succeeded in the 2Mbps field transmission experiment with W-CDMA. Thereafter, NTT DoCoMo invited operators and manufacturers at home and abroad to participate in its system trials, and made W-CDMA technology openly available to any entity, in a bid to contribute to the standardization of IMT-2000.

In Europe, the standardization work for IMT-2000 has been led by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI) Special Mobile Group (SMG). At its SMG #24bis meeting held in Paris on Jan. 28-29, 1998, for IMT-2000 it was unanimously decided to adopt a radio interface technology that is based on W-CDMA , but has some elements from the TD/CDMA concept.

Many operators in Asia and Oceania have already announced their support for W-CDMA. The decision by ETSI this time is considered to provide a huge leap forward in realizing a global standard for IMT-2000. NTT DoCoMo welcomes the ETSI decision, and will further commit itself to realize a global standard.

As for NTT DoCoMo's future commitments, based on the outcome of the ETSI meeting, NTT DoCoMo will cooperate with the coordination activities to be carried out at ARIB prior to submitting technical proposals to ITU in June, 1998. In addition, NTT DoCoMo will facilitate the system trials jointly with its partner operators and manufacturers, and specify/verify detailed technical specifications and parameters. The outcome of the system trials will be submitted to ARIB, etc.