At the end of May, Kazunori Hagiwara was thrilled to be chosen to try out NTT DoCoMo's next-generation cellphone system.

But two months after FOMA, the world's first 3G service, kicked off, the new handset sits idle despite a data transmission speed of 384 kilobits per second.

"It's next to useless," said Hagiwara, who hoped to receive about 100 e-mails a day and use the mobile phone on business trips.