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To: D.B. Cooper who wrote (1440)	6/6/2001 10:33:44 AM
From: D.B. Cooper	Respond to of 13815

KDDI, Unicom form wireless alliance By Mariko Ando, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:49 AM ET June 6, 2001 TOKYO (CBS.MW) - The second-largest telecommunications operators in China and Japan agreed on Wednesday to collaborate in wireless technologies and services as part of a comprehensive alliance. Under the agreement signed Tuesday in Beijing, Japan's KDDI and China Unicom will join in developing Internet access services and mobile phone technologies. KDDI, which operates networks that run on Qualcomm's (QCOM: news, msgs, alerts) CDMA standard, will also "actively proceed with talks" with Unicom to develop technologies that will enable each other's subscribers to roam without switching handsets, KDDI said in a statement. KDDI's shares (KDDIF: news, msgs, alerts) rose as much as 8 percent before retracting slightly to close at 594,000 yen, up 31,000 yen or 5.5 percent. China Unicom (CHU: news, msgs, alerts) rose 25 cents, or 2 percent, to close at 12.95 Hong Kong dollars. The deal moves KDDI step further in its global strategy of forming alliances with foreign operators using CDMA technology, and allows Qualcomm to earn royalties on sales of equipment and handsets. KDDI has already signed roaming agreements with Hutchison Telephone (HUWHY: news, msgs, alerts) in Hong Kong, SK Telecom (SKM: news, msgs, alerts) in South Korea, Telstra (TLS: news, msgs, alerts) in Australia, Verizon Wireless (VZ: news, msgs, alerts) in the U.S. and Canada's Telus Mobility. Beijing-based Unicom last month signed $1.46 billion in telecom equipment contracts with Motorola (MOT: news, msgs, alerts) , Lucent Technologies (LU: news, msgs, alerts) , Nortel Networks (NT: news, msgs, alerts) and Ericsson (ERICY: news, msgs, alerts) to build a 13.3 million-subscriber CDMA network this year. See full story. KDDI's expertise could help Unicom get off to a smooth start in the critical early stages of its deployment of CDMA networks, the Wall Street Journal reported. The success of that rollout is seen as important to KDDI, which is betting that a thriving market in China would drive down the price of CDMA equipment and encourage development of cutting-edge services that would attract subscribers, it said. China's mobile phone subscribers exceeded 100 million users by the end of March, suggesting that the country will soon surpass the U.S. as the world's biggest mobile market.