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Carriers

Goldman Sachs Quits Softbank Pact

Goldman Sachs has pulled out of the Y1,450bn ($12.4bn) refinancing for Softbank’s acquisition of Vodafone Japan, raising fresh concerns about the Japanese communications group. Analysts say the US investment bank’s move to quit the lending syndicate suggests it has misgivings about the terms of the loan, which is supported by revenues from the mobile arm. Despite the setback, Softbank expects the refinancing to go ahead at the end of this month. Softbank said other lenders would fill the gap left by Goldman’s departure. The syndicate includes Deutsche, Citibank and Mizuho.

Fujitsu to Develop Super 3G Base Stations

Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has been selected in NTT DoCoMo’s procurement process to develop and manufacture prototypes and commercial equipment for DoCoMo’s super 3G wireless base stations. Fujitsu has been actively involved in the 3GPP’s standardization initiatives from the outset, and has been developing the fundamental technologies required to improve spectrum efficiency for the Super 3G standard, such as multi-antenna system and OFDM technologies.

DoCoMo Picks Super 3G Vendors

DoCoMo has chosen Motorola Inc. and NEC Corp. to supply handsets for its so-called super 3G network, an industry source said. The source said Fujitsu Ltd. would supply the base stations for the network, which is an upgrade to DoCoMo’s existing 3G infrastructure. DoCoMo Technology Inc. President Kouta Kinoshita told a news conference earlier this week that the mobile operator had selected equipment vendors for the network in October, but he did not provide their names.

KDDI Announces Digital Radio Services

KDDI announced it will add digital radio to its mobile-phone service as the company builds on attracting subscribers with its music download features. The service starts in early December, according to a release given at a press conference today. Users can listen to Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co.’s bilingual station live through their handsets, the statement said.

FCC Approves Guam Cellular Acquisition

DoCoMo announced today that it has received approval from the U.S. regulatory authority, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), for the company’s 100% acquisition of Guam Cellular. The agreement was concluded on March 20, 2006 in the amount of $71,800,000. Under the terms of the deal, DoCoMo will complete the 100% acquisition of Guam Cellular through its established holding company, after which it will acquire the business of Guam Wireless through Guam Cellular and merge the two companies.

SoftBank Mobile Reports Modest MNP Success

Japan’s mobile carriers aren’t in turmoil — not so far, anyway. But Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has brought the nearest thing yet to a consumer-facing market meltdown, and the No. 1 Agent of Change is undoubtedly Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Mobile.

The media, industry analysts and Japan Wireless Watchers everywhere have been hit with two sets of numbers in the past fortnight: the initial, media-and-analysts-only post-MNP subscriber churn numbers released on 31 October (one week after MNP start) by NTT DoCoMo and KDDI (SoftBank Mobile was silent), followed by the regular monthly release of overall subscriber numbers issued on 8 November by the TCA Telecommunications Carriers Association; keep in mind that the TCA release is based on self-reporting from the carriers).