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.
