Subscriptions to FOMA 3G Service Top 50 million

FOMA™, NTT DOCOMO's hugely popular third-generation (3G) mobile service, surpassed 50 million subscribers, or 91% of all DOCOMO customers, on June 11. The milestone was achieved in about seven years and nine months.

FOMA was launched as the world's first commercial 3G service based on W-CDMA technology in October 2001.

Over the years, the 3G service has provided DOCOMO with a platform for introducing a wide range of high-quality handsets, innovative services and competitive charging plans. With the introduction of HSDPA technology, the newest DOCOMO FOMA phones offer data speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps.

FOMA service is available in virtually 100% of Japan's populated areas.

The major milestones of FOMA subscriptions:

Date Milestone
October 1, 2001 Official launch
September 30, 2003 1 million
July 19, 2004 5 million
February 21, 2005 10 million
December 29, 2005 20 million
June 18, 2006 50% of DOCOMO subscribers
November 4, 2006 30 million
September 29, 2007 40 million
June 11, 2009 50 million