NTT DoCoMo are used to owning the whole end-to-end stack. They are one of the few, if not the only, operator that very thoroughly specifies both the network side and the terminal side of their network. They have a large R&D department that is very competent and actively engaged in standardization and development of new technologies. For instance, they were one of the drivers behind LTE from the very start.
For them, it must be hard to no longer own the terminals on their network fully. I suppose they had to start offering Android terminals since their own smartphones were not competitive compared to the Iphone and Android.
But without any control of the terminals' behavior it's very hard to tune and operate a cellular network. It's not so easy to increase capacity, since there's only so much spectrum available for use and the modern wireless technologies can't get much more efficient. Especially in crowded locations like downtown Tokyo the base stations are already about as close as you can have them. It's not something you can just throw money at to solve.
So it's a tough problem. From the handset makers' and app developers' side it's easier to not restrict data usage since they are not the ones paying the price.
Comments
NTT DoCoMo are used to owning the whole end-to-end stack. They are one of the few, if not the only, operator that very thoroughly specifies both the network side and the terminal side of their network. They have a large R&D department that is very competent and actively engaged in standardization and development of new technologies. For instance, they were one of the drivers behind LTE from the very start.
For them, it must be hard to no longer own the terminals on their network fully. I suppose they had to start offering Android terminals since their own smartphones were not competitive compared to the Iphone and Android.
But without any control of the terminals' behavior it's very hard to tune and operate a cellular network. It's not so easy to increase capacity, since there's only so much spectrum available for use and the modern wireless technologies can't get much more efficient. Especially in crowded locations like downtown Tokyo the base stations are already about as close as you can have them. It's not something you can just throw money at to solve.
So it's a tough problem. From the handset makers' and app developers' side it's easier to not restrict data usage since they are not the ones paying the price.