NTT DOCOMO First Commercial Femtozone Application

Entities Mentioned

• AT&T
• Vodafone
• NTT DOCOMO

1. NTT DOCOMO officially announced its femtocell service called "MyArea" on November 10, 2009 for availability starting November 18.  Unlike some trials in Japan that focused on using femtocells as public space coverage solutions, the DOCOMO commercial launch is positioned as a residential offering.  The product specs include compatibility with HSUPA when the service is launched (see the * caveat):

   
   

   From this and additional source materials, here is what we can glean from the announcement:

   • Aggressive fees.  Compared to other launches at Vodafone and AT&T, the DOCOMO launch features lower fees.  Initial signup fee is ¥2100, (~$22), with a monthly fee of ¥980 (~$10).  Until May 31, 2010, DOCOMO is offering a two-year family package.  This limited time offer waives the signup fee and discounts the monthly fee to ¥490 (~$5).
      
   • Presence notification.  Using the combination of certain GPS-equipped phones and the femtocell, DOCOMO is offering a service, called “imasuka” (loosely translated, means "are you there?" in English) that sends an email notification to a predefined person when a user enters or leaves the femtocell zone.  The press release indicates that this could be used to notify parents when children arrive home, or to send electronic coupons to willing customers at a store.

   • Truck-roll installation.  MyArea is a plug & play femtocell, but an NTT DOCOMO technician must perform the initial installation.
     

   In all, this is an impressive offering on a number of fronts, especially the service pricing.  Most importantly, DOCOMO's launch is the first commercial offering featuring a femtozone application -- taking the concept out of the realm of demoware and squarely into the real world. Starting November 18, we can look forward to reading what Japan’s bloggers have to say about their experiences.

   
   

   This article also appears in the Airvana Blog.
   

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