TOKYO-KDDI, the newly formed telecom group in Japan, said it is talking to several foreign carriers regarding alliances, international press reports said. A possible alliance could include an equity investment, although such an investment likely would be no more than 13 percent.
KDDI was formed earlier this month through the merger of IDO Corp., DDI Corp. and KDD Corp. and is the second-largest telecom carrier in Japan behind NTT Corp. Kyocera is the company’s largest shareholder with a 15.3-percent stake, followed by Toyota with 13.3 percent.
KDDI lags behind wireless leader NTT DoCoMo and uses CDMA technology to offer its “au” branded services. The company’s new subscriber additions in August were fewer than both NTT DoCoMo and J-Phone, the mobile arm of Japan Telecom and the country’s third-largest wireless operator.
In related news, KDDI awarded Motorola a contract for cdma2000 1XRTT technology to cover the Tokyo, Tokai and Kansai regions. The new system, expected to begin commercial service in fourth-quarter 2001, will allow packet data service at 144 kilobits per second.
Motorola said it will develop and introduce the 1X system, which is an expanded version of KDDI’s cdmaOne system that currently offers 64 kbps data service, for KDDI’s 800 MHz network.
