DoCoMo just announced they will expand the role of DOCOMO China Co., Ltd. to strengthen delivery of high-quality solutions, services and support and facilitate new growth in the fast-expanding Chinese mobile market. DOCOMO China, a wholly owned subsidiary based in Shanghai, will begin collecting data on mobile communications and exploring new business opportunities in China.
NTT Communications announced today that it has agreed with Conexus Mobile Alliance, a cooperative association of Asia-Pacific mobile operators, to deliver enterprise smartphone solutions that multinational corporations can use to support their expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. As part of providing these solutions, NTT Com also will offer consultation on applicable smartphones and tariff plans in countries/regions where Conexus members have a presence. NTT Com began providing Global Messaging solutions on April 1 of this year.
According to a recent interview with Toshinari Kunieda, senior vice president and managing director of DoCoMo’s global business, the company is considering taking a stake in Cambodian operator Mobitel. Currently held by Millicom International Cellular (MIC), the report suggests while no final decision has been made the acquisition would add strength to their expanding APAC operations. Operating under the CamGSM banner, the dominant telco has 2M subscribers with just under 50% market share.
MCN-Inc. has announced they have enabled the launch of Smart Search for Philippine-based Smart Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PLDT. Smart Search is an SMS triggered discovery service that will be targeting the companies 37M subscribers who can use a shortcode to text queries for their favorite downloadable music content. Smart Search will be available for free during an initial promotional period after which each successful search will cost P1.00 per transaction.
According to Reuters, India has approved the offer made by DoCoMo in Novemeber 2008 to acquire a 27.3 percent stake in the country’s sixth-largest mobile operator Tata Teleservices on Monday. The deal will result in foreign direct investment of 129.24 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) and the decision also allowed DoCoMo to acquire up to 20.25 percent in Tata Tele’s listed unit Tata Teleservices.
LG Telecom has announced the canu s1000 handset will go on sale in Korea for about 500,000 won. The unit is made by Hitachi and based on the W53H design, a dual-swing clamshell with QVGA organic EL display . It will run on the same EVDO rev. A network, synch with the operators OZ content portal and run DMB instead of 1Seg for digital TV. LGT reportedly had good results from their earlier experiment with the canU 801Ex handset which was provided by Casio based on the W53CA Exilim model that was released by AU in spring 2007.
DoCoMo and Fujitsu announced that they have localized a mobile phone, based on the F905i model sold in Japan, targeting sales into the Taiwanese market. The new handset was officially launched by Far EasTone Telecomm, in which DoCoMo has an equity stake and is the exclusive provider of i-mode in Taiwan, this week.
The F905i offers advanced features such as 3.2-inch full-wide VGA two-position display, 3.2-megapixel camera and Fujitsu’s proprietary technologies for exceptionally clear sound and voice reproduction at 30% slower speed for easy comprehension.
It’s the first unit co-developed by DoCoMo and Fujitsu for export and allows users to view and input text using traditional Chinese character set, enabling access to FET’s i-mode service in the local language [PDF]. We expect to see increased activity in this respect considering the challenge that device makers are facing in Japan.
According to this post on Bloomberg a few hours ago, DoCoMo is preparing to announce they will take a stake in Tata Teleservices. A company official, who asked not to be identified, is quoted as stating “The board approved the investment today” but declined to provide the size of investment, which the Nikkei Net Interactive site reported at 260 billion yen ($2.7 billion) for a 26 percent stake. If this happens – which seems quite possible – it would represent their largest overseas investment since the AT&T adventure back in 2000. This could be rather interesting 😎 Update: It’s Official
According to this post via the Malaysian National News Agency, TM International landed NTT DoCoMo as a shareholder in TM International (Bangladesh) Ltd (TMIB). In a statement issued Friday, TMI said DoCoMo has completed its purchase of a 30 percent stake in TMIB, TMI’s mobile operations in Bangladesh by acquiring all the issued and paid-up shares of TMIB previously held by A.K. Khan & Co Ltd and its four group companies. TMIB, trading under the brand name Aktel, operates a cellular Global System for Mobile Communications service in Bangladesh.
Fujitsu Global Mobile Platform Inc., a joint venture established based on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) tied between Fujitsu Limited’s former LSI business, and the Institute for Information Industry of Taiwan, have announced the commencement of operations, according to this press release. FMPI will develop reference designs – designs which improve design efficiencies – for WiMAX-related products for Taiwan-based ODM vendors, in addition to providing technical support.
