Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: engineer who wrote (2264)	10/13/1999 1:04:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

NTT> NTT To Ride 3G Wave Big carrier dives into 3G services and plans to buy into smaller Asian carriers Martyn Williams, Data Communications NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (NTT DoCoMo, Tokyo), is planning to become a big international wireless player by capitalizing on its early introduction of third generation wireless services, as well as buying into a number of other Asian carriers. Japan's giant cellular operator is aiming to roll out the world's first wideband CDMA (WCDMA) service in the Tokyo area in early 2001, and help operators in other Asia Pacific do the same. At Telecom 99, Keiji Tachikawa, NTT DoCoMo chief executive officer, told the Telecom 99 News Service that his company will take a minority equity stake in some of these operators. The move would enable NTT DoCoMo to speed up the availability of WCDMA outside Japan so that its customers could enjoy international roaming capabilities. "With third generation, Japan will no longer be isolated," said Tachikawa. At present, Japan's second generation digital network is based on PDC (personal digital communications) -- a system used only in Japan -- so international roaming is not available outside the country. The mobile carriers collaborating with DoCoMomo include: South Korea's SK Telecom Indonesia's PT Telkom Singapore's SingTel Mobile Philippines' Smart Communications the Telephone Organization of Thailand MEAST Broadcast Network Systems in Malaysia Hong Kong's SmarTone Telecom New Zealand. "DoCoMo is more focused on developing nations," Tachikawa said. He'd already talked with some operators about taking an equity stake in them, but he declined to say which ones. In Japan, DoCoMo has already placed orders for its WCDMA network and handsets with ten manufacturers. Those manufacturers are waiting for standards to be finalized before making equipment. Installation is scheduled to begin in late 2000 and commercial service is planned in early 2001. The cost of rolling out the network is expected to be around 100,000 yen (US$950) per customer, said Tachikawa, which is about the same as it cost for the current PDC network. Voice services on its WCDMA net will cost about the same, and data services will be much cheaper, he said. The initial WCDMA network will support data transmission at speeds up to 384 kilobits per second and DoCoMo has inked several agreements to jointly develop multimedia services and systems for use on the network. They include Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wa.), Sun Microsystems Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.), 3Com Corp. (San Jose, Calif.) and Symbian Ltd. (London). Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (Tokyo) owns 67 percent DoCoMo, which has a market capitalization of 21.12 trillion yen ($199.25 billion) -- three times that of when it debuted on the Tokyo stock market last year.