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 Japan's largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo, said on Friday that FOMA would now be rolled out nationwide and will cover most of the country by the end of fiscal 2002. NTT DoCoMo serves more than 40 million subscribers in Japan, more than 30,000 of whom already use the 3G service, which was first launched last October.
FOMA (freedom of multimedia access) was initially available only within a 30-kilometre radius in downtown Tokyo, giving users fast access to e-mail, some Web services and e-commerce. But on Friday the company said it would expand the service immediately to cover 60 percent of the nation's populated areas as of April. A further expansion schedule this autumn should bring 3G to 90 percent of all populated areas by the end of fiscal 2002.
The company also unveiled details of its new FOMA D2101V handset, which it says is the first handset equipped for real-time videoconferencing as well as "i-motion," a service that lets subscribers view movie trailers and listen to music clips. The launch comes after DoCoMo was forced to recall 1,500 of its original videophones, the FOMA N2002, last November, after discovering a software bug that erased data stored on the phones.
The company said the new phone has two built-in cameras: one on the front face of the unit for videophone calls, and the other on the top edge for taking digital videos or photographs. The handset's liquid crystal display shows more than 260,000 colours and the display size is 132 pixels by 162 pixels, and the company said the voice quality of the phone is equivalent to that of a landline.
Weighing just 160g, the phone has continuous talk time of 60 minutes of 50 minutes when used as a videophone. Data rates are up to 384Kbps, and videophone calls run at 64Kbps, the same speed as a standard ISDN line.
The new videophone and the expansion of its 3G service will further consolidate NTT DoCoMo's reputation as a principal innovator in mobile services. The company also announced this week that in MArch it is to roll out I-mode in Germany through NTT's partnership with E-plus.
I-mode was the original NTT DoCoMo service that helped transform the mobile phone into a data companion for millions of Japanese, providing access to Web sites, e-mail, on-line shopping, banking and ticket reservations. I-mode charges are based on the volume of data transmitted rather the amount of time spent on-line.
NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange and is expected to list on the New York and London stock exchanges in early March.
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