Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access

FOMA, officially short for Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access, is the brand name for the 3G services being offered by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

FOMA was the world's first W-CDMA 3G service when launched in 2001. FOMA is compatible with standard UMTS, both via the radio link as well as via USIM card exchange, and hence provides several alternative options for global roaming: either with or without change of handset. Since mobile services in Japan are generally more advanced than in most other countries, e.g. FeliCa-i-Mode Wallet Phones, i-Mode mobile data services etc, to obtain full benefit of FOMA services local Japanese handsets are used.

Initially - as the first full-scale 3G service in the world - FOMA handsets were of experimental character targeting early adopters, and were big, had poor battery life and the network covered the center of Japan's largest towns only. For the first 1-2 years, FOMA was essentially an experimental service for early adopters - mainly communication industry professionals.

Around March 2004, with almost full national coverage including subway stations and the inside of most major buildings, and with the introduction of DoCoMo's 900i series of handsets, FOMA achieved the breakthrough into mass sales, and sales soared. As of summer 2005, FOMA has almost 15 million subscribers and is the fastest growing cellphone network in Japan.

See also

• camera phone

External links

• FOMA website