DoCoMo's 3G Alliance with Cingular
NTT DoCoMo Inc. will tie up with Cingular Wireless LLC, the second-largest U.S. cellphone service company, in a bid to unify the technical specifications of 3G cellphones and services, a Japanese business daily reported Thursday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that DoCoMo and Cingular have already entered into negotiations on forging an alliance which would become the world’s second-largest cellphone service provider with some 90 million customers after Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc.
Cingular will become the largest U.S. cellphone service firm later this year after acquiring AT&T Wireless Services Inc., in which DoCoMo has a 16 percent stake, the report said, adding Cingular anticipates a jump in the number of its subscribers to about 47 million.