Other Services and Initiatives

Cars are an essential part of daily life and industrial development, but they are also implicated in a variety of societal issues, including environmental problems and traffic congestion. DOCOMO is building an intelligent transport system (ITS) using mobile technologies to help create a society that is safe, secure and enriching for all.
As a part of these efforts we launched docomo Drive Net in November 2010, a service that provides information to car navigation systems and other devices. The service is compatible with portable navigation devices with internal communications modules, smartphones and various other wireless devices. It uses DOCOMO's network to provide local, real-time information, including the latest map data, tourist facilities based on the car's location, and information on available parking spaces.
In fiscal 2011, we plan to enhance application features and work to further raise the convenience of the docomo Drive Net service.

DOCOMO has developed the Gardening Support Service (tentative name) to help people grow flowers and vegetables at home. The service is one of our social support services, which utilize mobile phones to contribute to society's sustainable development.
The service involves installing a sensor developed by DOCOMO in the soil (of a planter, etc.). The sensor measures sunlight amounts, air temperature, ground temperature, moisture levels and other elements, and information on watering, care, harvesting and more is sent via email to the customer based on gardening expertise provided by seed companies and other organizations. The service provides access to data from the sensor as well as a community site for customers of the service to exchange information and receive advice from specialists. It makes flower and vegetable gardening at home highly enjoyable even for complete novices.
Testing on the commercial viability of the service began in October 2010. Around 30 households with avid gardeners in the Tokyo metropolitan area grew stick broccoli and daikon radish and gave an evaluation of the content and frequency of information provided by the service and the data measured by the sensor. Going forward, we will continue to review service content with a view to launching a commercial version some time in fiscal 2011.

As smartphones and similar wireless devices have rapidly gained in popularity, use of e-books has also made headway, so in October 2010 DOCOMO began offering a limited-time trial service that allows magazines, books and other content to be viewed on smartphones. In December, we established 2Dfacto, Inc., a joint venture with Dai Nippon Printing and other companies. And, in January 2011, based on customer feedback on the trial service, we launched the 2Dfacto e-bookstore service based on the concept of always being able to find the book you want to read and reading in the format you want.
2Dfacto offers a lineup of some 30,000 literary titles, comic books and more. The service allows any one e-book to be read on multiple devices, including DOCOMO smartphones and other wireless devices with book readers that are compatible with the service. In fiscal 2011, we will further enhance the service's content and provide periodicals, magazines, newspapers and other new publications. Plans also call for adding a sync feature that will allow the user to access information tagged with bookmarks and notes across multiple devices and continue reading the same publication.