Carriers
Carriers

Carriers

Vodafone's ex-CEO: The Pre-Postmortem

The news out of Vodafone today is that Darryl E. Green, CEO of both Vodafone KK and Vodafone Holdings KK, has resigned for personal reasons. An interim CEO has been appointed while the companies search for a permanent replacement. Green’s departure is not unrelated, we suspect, to Vodafone’s recent grim Japanese financial results. While it’s too early for a full postmortem, it might help bring perspective to the situation to point out a number of successes that Vodafone achieved on Green’s watch.

Vodafone KK Announces New CEO

Vodafone Holdings KK and Vodafone KK jointly announce that their respective boards of directors today appointed Dr. J. Brian Clark as President and Chief Executive Officer and Representative Executive Officer of the two companies, effective immediately. Dr. Clark will assume the responsibilities of Mr. Darryl E. Green, who has resigned as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer and Representative Executive Officer of the two companies for personal reasons.

NTT DoCoMo's Nakamura: New and Luke Warm!

In a series of subtle and not so subtle remarks that made it clear all is not well at NTT DoCoMo, new president and CEO Masao Nakamura vowed to recover the company’s tarnished record of delivering huge profits. He also said the company would plunge into Asia for global revenue expansion, just like ex-CEO Keiji Tachikawa vowed to do in 2001. Beyond that, Nakamura promised that DoCoMo would put the customer first — but then said he’d put the shareholder first; later, apparently contradicting the propaganda put out by i-mode boss Takeshi Natsuno last week, he said he wasn’t sure how big the market for FeliCa was going to be. But there was plenty of new news broached by Nakamura and he’s set some hard targets in his (somewhat foggy) sights.

Carlyle Group & Kyocera Buy DDI

U.S. buyout specialist Carlyle Group and Kyocera Corp. are right now announcing details of their purchase of keitai mini and Personal Handy Phone (PHS) operator DDI Pocket from KDDI. Carlyle and Kyocera are expected to snap up a 90 percent stake in DDI Pocket in the $2.1 billion deal. The purchase is sure to give Kyocera, a major PHS phone and base-station maker, a platform to hit the booming China market and gives KDDI a chance to offload the strugging DDI unit (now down to its last 3 million subs) as au concentrates on improving its CDMA 1X EV-DO WIN service against a resurgent DoCoMo. Under the deal announced yesterday, Carlyle will own 60%, Kyocera 10% and KDDI will keep the remaining 10%.

Korea Considers MVNO Boost for 3G

Korea plans to introduce the “mobile virtual network operator” model to their local telecom industry, with the objective of stimulating market competition and generating new revenue streams through the expansion of data-based services in the industry’s transition to 3G. The Ministry of Information and Communication and the state-run Korea Information Strategy Development Institute began a joint research project last week to discuss the direction and phasing in of MVNO.

KDDI to Slash Fee for 3G Data

KDDI Corp., provider of the “au” mobile phone service, said Wednesday it will slash the fixed-amount charge for data transmission services such as email and Internet access, starting on Aug. 1. The au service has lagged behind the FOMA service of its archrival NTT DoCoMo in net increases of subscribers to third-generation high-speed, large-capacity data transmission services.