Present Technologies

Usage patterns for mobile phones are moving away from simple telephony to data communication via the Internet. NTT DoCoMo is a pioneer in the effort to increase the speed of networks supporting mobile communications. Bringing broadband communication to mobile networks allows terminals to comfortably support media-rich content such as moving images, and also allows PDAs and mobile computers to download large amounts of data at high speed via wireless LANs. Development to achieve these goals has already begun.

Mobile communications technology has made giant strides over the past decade, rapidly moving from first-generation (1G) analog voice-only service to second-generation (2G) digital voice and data communications. These 2G technologies include IS-136 (also known as US-TDMA and Digital AMPS) in the U.S.; GSM in Europe which became a popular standard worldwide; and PDC (Personal Digital Communications) in Japan. NTT DoCoMo's third-generation (3G) FOMA (Freedom Of Mobile multimedia Access) service, based on W-CDMA, has now shifted the mobile communication environment to the next level. This advanced new service not only provides voice transmission quality on a par with fixed-line communications, it also supports diverse multimedia content.

In addition, NTT DoCoMo offers wireless LAN services employing Wi-Fi to provide high-speed data transmission at up to 11 Mbps for PDAs and mobile PCs.

As part of the transition from 3.5G to 4G, NTT DoCoMo is engaged in research to create networks with even higher speeds and larger capacity. Currently, HSDPA (3.5G) can achieve speeds of up to 14 Mbps even when using the same 5 MHz frequency band as W-CDMA (3G). This service was timetabled for introduction in the second quarter of FY2006 (ending in March 2006).