(COMTEX)Japan Telecom Co., Nissan Motor Co. and
AirTouch Communications Inc. of the United States are planning to build
a joint venture to cooperate in future mobile phone services, industry
sources said Thursday.
The companies will set up a planning company as a pilot firm for the
venture by the end of this year. It will work out details of the
venture and find additional investors, the sources said.
Being eyed by the three companies are advanced mobile phone services
which are expected to be approved in Japan in 2001.
The market is expected to grow to tens of trillions of yen by 2010, the
sources said.
The three companies plan to use the ''W-CDWA'' standard that will be
adopted in the U.S., European and Japanese markets, the sources said.
They calculate that the total operation will cost more than 600 billion
yen, including the cost of constructing networks, the sources said.
The scale of capital and stakes in the planned venture will be decided
when all the details are worked out, they said.
Japan Telecom, one of Japan's three long-distance carriers and an
affiliate of the Japan Railway group, and AirTouch, the world's biggest
company in the wireless communications field, have maintained close
relations through joint investment in three digital phone companies in
Japan.
Japan Telecom has also joined hands with Nissan to cooperate in the
operation of six mobile phone companies.
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Regards, Dave |
