Case Study: NTT Docomo achieves 90% map-data procurement cost reduction and accelerated development with Google Cloud Platform

NTT Docomo reducing costs and improving development efficiency

NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest telecommunications company serving over 73 million customers, had built an in‑house, high‑accuracy mapping system covering all of Japan (topography, altitude and aerial imagery). The project took years and generated very large datasets, making construction, operation and updates costly and slow; after the 2011 earthquake management required the team to cut costs and improve development efficiency.

The team migrated the area information system to Google Maps Platform and completed the switchover in about four months. The move improved usability and scalability, delivered always‑up‑to‑date map data with no extra development cost, enabled additions like Street View, shortened development time by roughly two‑thirds, and cut map data procurement costs by about 90%.

NTT Docomo

Yoshiaki Uehara

Section Chief of Network Information Systems