New DDI to Offer Lower Prices for New Cell Service
Source: Jiji Press English News Service
Publication date: 2000-05-12
Tokyo, May 12 (Jiji Press)--A new Japanese telecommunications firm coming out of a three-way merger in October will offer lower prices than its rivals for next-generation cellular phone services.
By adopting a system developed by Qualcomm Inc. of the United States, the new firm could use existing facilities and keep capital investment low, DDI Corp. President Yusai Okuyama of said Friday.
Okuyama met the press after DDI, IDO Corp. and KDD Corp., merging into the new firm to have the name of DDI Corp., submitted an application for the next-generation cellular phone service to the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. and the J-Phone group of Japan Telecom Co. have already submitted their applications, planning to adopt a Japanese- European system, developed by Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group and European firms.
Both the U.S. system and the Japanese-European system have been approved as international standards for the next-generation cellular services.
DDI and IDO have already invested about 500 billion yen in the Qualcomm system for their mainstay cdmaOne service, and will use this as the basis of the next-generation cellular phone system, Okuyama said.
Though the U.S. system-based service is expected to start in the United States as late as in 2005, the U.S. system will be in a superior position in Asia, where there is market potential, Okuyama said.
Publication date: 2000-05-12
¸ 2000, YellowBrix, Inc. |
