Japan's NTT DoCoMo says it has passed the 10 million user milestone for its 3G service making it, arguably, the most successful 3G service in the world.

The service, which DoCoMo calls FOMA, was launched in the fall of 2001 and is available in virtually all populated areas of Japan, according to the company. In a statement, the company attributed the rapid the rapid growth of the W-CDMA service to the fact that it offers a wide variety of handsets and its flat-rate pricing plan for accessing content on offered by its i-mode service.

While the FOMA 3G service initially was aimed at business users, the company recently started offering phones and services designed to attract consumers. For instance, earlier in February, it launched a series of phones that were less expensive and more stylish than its previous selection.