Foundation: 1991
Headquarters: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo
President: Motoyuki Ii
Executive Summary: NTT Docomo is a major Japanese mobile phone operator that currently provides a range of products, including smartphones, personal computers, smartwatches, and routers, as well as a range of services, such as public wireless LAN and international roaming. Originally named NTT Mobile Communications Network, the company was spun off from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in August 1991 and was formally established in 1992. One year later, the company launched its first digital cellular service, mova 2G. Motivated by a desire to “take over the mobile cellular operations,” NTT Docomo became Japan’s largest telecommunications company, holding over 40% of all mobile subscriptions in the country in 2020. In October 1998, the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and, just one year later, launched the world’s first mobile internet-services platform, the i-mode. In 2001, the company revolutionized the telecommunications industry when it released the world’s first 3G service based on the earlier Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) standard for mobile communications, which NTT Docomo had helped to establish. It was only in 2000 that the company officially changed its name to NTT Docomo–“Docomo” being an acronym for “do communications over the mobile network” and a reference to the Japanese word “dokomo,” which also translates to “everywhere.” In July 2008, NTT Docomo merged with eight of its regional, wholly-owned subsidiaries located in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Tokai, Hokuriku, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The merger was motivated by a desire to streamline and quicken group management and decision-making. In 2010, NTT Docomo released one of the world’s first LTE services. LTE stands for “Long-Term Evolution” and existed as a pathway to what is now referred to as 4G, allowing for wireless data transmission to occur at speeds faster than 3G. Currently, NTT Docomo operates across the Asia Pacific (Japan, China, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Guam), Europe (Germany and England), and the Americas (Brazil and the USA). NTT Docomo serves over 70 million customers in Japan and employs around 27,000 people. Its annual income is in the range of US$45 billion.
