Xi: NTT Docomo Rolls Out Japan's First LTE service

In August, we reported that NTT Docomo, Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, is ready to invest a whopping $3.4 billion through 2012 in an LTE service the company has named “Xi” (which is read Crossy). And over the weekend (and as announced previously), the company finally rolled out said service [press release in English].

Xi, which boasts data-transfer speeds of five to ten times faster than 3G, will initially be available through an LTE-compatible data card for computers only. Consumers can expect the first compatible handsets to hit stores by March 2012.

Geographically speaking, the service is first available in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya but expected to expand to all of Japan’s 47 prefectural capitals by the end of the next fiscal year. Docomo says that in about four years, transmissions speeds will reach 100Mbps and that by 2015, 25% of all subscribers (15 million people) will have migrated to LTE.