Tokyo, Japan, September 10, 2001 -- NTT DoCoMo announced today that it will increase downlink packet transmission speed of its successful "i-mode" and "DoPa" mobile Internet services (9.6 Kbps version of Dual Service) from the current 9.6 Kbps to 28.8Kbps to bring added convenience to customers.

An estimated 2.7 million customers currently enjoy DoCoMo's i-mode service. NTT DoCoMo decided to upgrade the transmission speed in response to their requests. As a result, users will be able to download various content, including still images and music files, more quickly and smoothly. Accordingly, the maximum amount of data that can be downloaded at one time will increase from 10kbyte to 30kbyte.

The company is planning to launch its upgraded service around Spring, 2002. A portion of the new handsets to be sold after that time will be compatible with the new transmission speed and data size. The service area will remain unchanged.