CHOICE OF 3G SERVICE BY JAPANNESE CARRIERS >>>>>>>>>>>Tokyo, April 20 (Bloomberg) -- The following are comments from DDI Corp. President Yusai Okuyama and IDO
Corp. President Satoshi Nakagawa on DDI's choice of a standard for the advanced cellular phone service known as 3G,
or third generation, cell phone services. DDI, which will buy IDO, the cell phone unit of Toyota Motor Corp., and KDD
Corp., Japan's largest international phone company, will apply for a license to operate `3G' services. Still, the company
hasn't officially said whether it will use Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access technology, which NTT DoCoMo Inc.
developed with Ericsson AB and Nokia OYJ, or cdma2000, developed by Qualcomm Inc. The Ministry of Posts and
Telecommunications will close `3G' license applications on May 12.
DDI President Okuyama:
``We have a strong weapon, which is cdmaOne. We want to make the best use of it. That's our basic idea. With
cdmaOne, we can compete with NTT DoCoMo efficiently even though they are ahead of us (in third generation phone
service) now.
``However we need to closely examine the future development of the third generation cell phone market. We need to
study capital investment, we need to see which of the two standards will be used by the majority in the world. We need
to consider which standard will have a better handset deal.
``I don't think our potential choice of W-CDMA over cdma2000 will cause any trade friction between the U.S. and
Japan.'
IDO President Nakagawa:
``The choice of the standard is so important that it may determine the success of the new (DDI) company. That's why we
need complete examination over the future development of the market. We don't want to be a minority in the market.
``Our investment will be smaller if we choose cdma2000 because we can use a portion of the cdmaOne infrastructure for
cdma2000. While we may end up spending more if W-CDMA becomes used by the majority, venders will sell
equipment cheaper than they would sell cdma2000 equipment.'
Okuyama and Nakagawa spoke at a joint press conference, which will be held regularly in the future. KDD President
Tadashi Nishimoto also attended.
Apr/20/2000 2:54
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