NTT DoCoMo

NTT Docomo, Inc.
株式会社エヌ・ティ・ティ・ドコモ

Type	Public
Traded as	TYO: 9437 NYSE: DCM LSE: NDCM
Industry	Wireless Services
Founded	August 1991
Headquarters	Sanno Park Tower Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Ryuji Yamada President & CEO
Products	PDC, i-mode, W-CDMA, FOMA, HSDPA, LTE, PHS
Revenue	$46.220 billion (2010)
Net income	$5.337 billion (2010)
Total assets	$72.892 billion (2010)
Employees	23,409 (2010)
Parent	Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (60.24%)
Subsidiaries	NTT Docomo USA Docomo Service Tata DoCoMo
Website	NTT Docomo global website

NTT Docomo's older logo used until 2008

Sanno Park Tower, which has the headquarters of NTT Docomo

NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building in Shibuya, Tokyo

A large pile of Docomodake merchandise.

NTT Docomo, Inc.^[1] (株式会社エヌ・ティ・ティ・ドコモ, Kabushiki Gaisha Enu Ti Ti 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 from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone (FOMA and Some PHS), i-mode (internet), and mail (i-mode mail, Short Mail, and SMS) services. The company has its headquarters in the Sanno Park Tower, Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo.^[2]

Docomo was spun off from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in August 1991 to take over the mobile cellular operations. It provides 2G (mova) PDC cellular services on the 800 MHz band, and 3G FOMA W-CDMA services on the 2 GHz (UMTS2100) and 800 MHz(UMTS800(Band VI)) and 1700 MHz(UMTS1700(Band IX)) bands, and 4G LTE services. Its businesses also included PHS (Paldio), paging, and satellite. Docomo ceased offering a PHS service on January 7, 2008.

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 33.71% 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 subscribers in Japan. NTT Docomo is the creator of W-CDMA technology as well as mobile i-mode service.

NTT Docomo has more than 53 million customers (as of March 2008), which is 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.

On April 19, 2008, it was announced that Ryuji Yamada, the current co-president of NTT Docomo, will be promoted as the president of NTT Docomo in June 2008. Masao Nakamura will stay in NTT Docomo as a director and also the senior adviser. Since October 2006, when the introduction to the service which allows the user to carry their original phone number with a new provider was made, NTT Docomo has lost many users to KDDI and SoftBank. This promotion was made in order to get more users for NTT Docomo.^[3]

In June 2011, the company announced that they were teaming up with McAfee to provide McAfee VirusScan Mobile for its Android mobile users.^[4]

Research and development

On October 2007, the prototype Wellness mobile phone of Japan's NTT Docomo Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. was launched at CEATEC. It checks health with a motion sensor that detects body movement and measures calories, and includes a breathalyzer.^[5]

On January 24, 2008, NTT Docomo announced that they made connections with Google. enabling all models after the FOMA904i models to view YouTube videos.^[6][7]

NTT Docomo is a founding member of the Symbian Foundation. ^[8]

Earthquake warning system

From 2008, Docomo began offering a service called the "Area Mail Disaster Information Service" which broadcasts Earthquake Early Warning messages produced by the Japan Meteorological Agency to its subscribers with compatible handsets.^[9] This service is provided free of charge and messages are limited to those areas affected by each particular alert. These alerts have a unique ring tone so they can be easily distinguished from incoming calls or messages.

Mascot

The company's mascot is Docomodake, a mushroom, which is quite a celebrity in Japan. He even is the hero of a Nintendo DS puzzle and platforming video game, Boing! Docomodake DS, which was also released in North America and Europe.^[10] He also has a wide variety of merchandising such as cell phone straps, keychains, and plush dolls. As one type of advertising method, there are many types of Docomodakes such as mother and father, which symbolizes the plans that NTT Docomo offers. The image shown on the right are mainly the normal Docomodakes, with a few musume (daughter) Docomodakes and jiji (grandpa) Docomodakes.

Investments outside Japan

GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona 2008 99. Note the new logo.

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, KT Freetel, 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.

In December 2007, NTT Docomo and KT Freetel jointly invested 200 million USD for a total of 33% stake in U Mobile Malaysia.

In November 2008, NTT Docomo bought a 26% stake in Tata Teleservices for 2.7 billion USD, the number 6 in Indian telecom industry and owned by the Tata group. India is the world's fastest-growing cellular market, adding as many as 9 million new customers a month. Tata Teleservices (which sells under the brand Tata Indicom and Virgin Mobile India) has 80 million subscribers as of October 2010. Though Tata Indicom is a CDMA based operator, they bagged GSM licences as well, and the NTT Docomo-Tata venture is focused on GSM operation (called Tata DOCOMO). The Tata DOCOMO service was commercially launched in India in June 2009. Tata DOCOMO had about 32.82 million users at the end of June 2010.

They have also taken over Guamcell, among others, and so are now the main wireless operator in Guam.

Docomo is working on implementing its FeliCa-based payment system, called iD, overseas. It has already launched the system in Guam, as well as Shanghai and Beijing, China (however, as of November 2010, it has withdrawn iD terminals from all merchants in China).

See also

• Japanese mobile phone culture

Notes

1. ^ "Article 1. (Trade Name). Articles of Incorporation". http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/corporate/ir/binary/pdf/stock/regulations/articles_110617_e.pdf. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
2. ^ "Headquarters Location." NTT Docomo. Retrieved on March 7, 2010.
3. ^ "ドコモ社長に山田副社長が昇格へ" (in Japanese). 2008-04-19. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22. http://web.archive.org/web/20080422030408/http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0418/TKY200804180367.html. Retrieved 2008-04-18. 
4. ^ "NTT DoCoMo teams-up with McAfee to offer free malware protection for its Android users". intomobile.com. 2011 [last update]. http://www.intomobile.com/2011/06/27/ntt-docomo-teamsup-mcafee-offer-free-malware-protection-its-android-users/. Retrieved 19 July 2011. 
5. ^ Afp.google.com, New Prototype Phone Gives Fitness Check
6. ^ "ドコモとGoogleが提携──各種サービスのiモード対応などを推進" (in Japanese). ITMedia+D モバイル. http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0801/24/news066.html. Retrieved 2008-01-26. 
7. ^ "YouTube、ドコモの904i／905iシリーズに対応" (in Japanese). ITMedia+D モバイル. http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0801/24/news104.html. Retrieved 2008-01-26. 
8. ^ "Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free" (Press release). Nokia. 24 June 2008. http://press.nokia.com/2008/06/24/mobile-leaders-to-unify-the-symbian-software-platform-and-set-the-future-of-mobile-free/. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
9. ^ "Area Mail Disaster Information Service". http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/safety/areamail/index.html. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
10. ^ "Boing! Docomodake page on GameFAQs". GameFAQs. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/943161-boing-docomodake-ds/data. Retrieved 2009-06-12. 

References

• FY2007 Annual Report. NTT Docomo, Inc., June 12, 2008.
• Ito, Takayuki (2006). "Japanese Cellular Phones FAQ". euc.JP. August 6, 2006.
• Docomo corporate information

External links

	Tokyo portal
	Companies portal

• NTT Docomo website
• NTT Docomo Global website
• NTT Docomo Service Area
• NTT DOCOMO USA
• DOCOMO Innovations
• DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe GmbH
• DOCOMO Beijing Research Labs
• Yahoo! - NTT Docomo, Inc. Company Profile
• Tata DOCOMO Web site (India)
• DOCOMO PACIFIC Web site
• Symbian Foundation