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UMTS
Monday, May 4, 2004
Japan's DoCoMo has said that subscribers to it's 3G service surpassed the
three million mark yesterday, just two months after reaching two million.
The figure goes far beyond NTT DoCoMo's targeted figure of 2.4 million
subscribers for fiscal 2003, which ends today.
DoCoMo attributes the rapid increase to its introduction of the 900i
series, the most advanced 3G phones ever, which have the following features:
high-capacity Java®-based i-appli applications, HTML email (Deco-mail),
avatar-capable video phone (Chara-den), combined video and high-fidelity
audio for incoming calls (Chaku-motion), and two-million-pixel cameras.
Amazingly, with all this functionality, 900i phones weigh only about 115
grams and offer about 150 static hours of standby time (the equivalent of
DoCoMo's mova® 2G handsets).
The number of indoor base stations has increased to 1,600 as of today in
order to offer more widely accessible service in major buildings,
underground malls and subway stations nationwide.
As of today, service is also available in 97 stations on four lines of
the Toei subway network, and in 43 stations on seven lines of the Eidan
subway network. FOMA service will be offered in all Eidan subway stations as
of the end of April (147 stations on eight lines).
In the near future, DoCoMo will begin offering FOMA users unlimited
access to i-mode services for a flat monthly rate. It will also lower the
minimum allowances of selected charge plans without raising the per-packet
communication rates.
