DoCoMo has been trailblazing the 3G lifecycle .. From their press release
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced that the number of subscribers to DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA™ service surpassed the 30 million mark on November 4, 2006, approximately five years and one month since the service’s launch on October 1, 2001.
DoCoMo attributes the rapid subscriber growth to its wide variety of services and contents taking advantage of 3G’s high speed and high capability data transmission, an expanding line-up of 3G handsets, wider coverage area and improvements in call quality.
DoCoMo plans to increase the number of FOMA base stations by 1.5 times year on year by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2007. The company also aims to expand the coverage area for FOMA HIGH-SPEED (HSDPA) that provides significantly faster speed than the current W-CDMA based data transmission, and to develop new compatible handset models. The company will also strengthen its range of 3G handsets featuring DoCoMo’s Osaifu-Keitai™ e-wallet services, music functions and “One-segment” digital terrestrial broadcasting.