TOKYO-Matsushita Electric Industrial, which manufactures cell phones under the Panasonic brand name, is discussing an alliance on third-generation mobile phones with European mobile carriers, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The company did not name potential partners, but the negotiations are part of the company’s plan to increase its worldwide market share for mobile-phone sales to 15 percent by 2003, the report said.
KPN of the Netherlands is a likely suitor, because of its shareholding by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, which works closely with Matsushita in Japan on 3G technology. Matsushita announced a partnership with Ericsson regarding testing its phones on Ericsson infrastructure in September.
