NEW YORK-Tokyo-based NEC Corp. has ambitious expansion plans for its wireless handsets and infrastructure business, but the plans do not target North America, said Koji Nishigaki, president.
In Asia, the company sees a big opportunity to supply third-generation mobile networks and terminals. In Europe, it intends to become a dominant supplier of this wireless equipment for both 2.5G and 3G networks.
“Our goal is to develop a vendor finance scheme and win large-scale European contracts,” Nishigaki said.
By contrast, NEC views the North American market primarily for its wireline prospects, providing network integration capabilities and optical backbones and access. Already it has begun supplying AT&T Corp. and Global Crossing with Wavelength Division Multiplexing equipment to increase the data throughput capacity of fiber-optic cables.
NEC projects that wideband CDMA will dominate as a next-generation wireless technology choice, capturing 58-percent worldwide market share by 2004, Nishigaki said.
“We are a world leader in the development of W-CDMA in infrastructure and handsets. Japan will be first to launch a large-scale commercial W-CDMA network,” he added.
Japan’s NTT DoCoMo helped develop W-CDMA technology, a proposed European standard for 3G mobile networks. Japan also seems likely to adopt W-CDMA, and DoCoMo anticipates a 2001 commercial debut of the service.
“At present, we are a leader in optical networking and mobile communications technologies. In the future, our network strategy is to strengthen that business to become number one worldwide,” Nishigaki said.
NEC also hopes to leverage and expand on its second-place position as a handset supplier to the Japanese market, where it now holds a 20-percent share.
In September, NTT DoCoMo began selling NEC’s new N503it i-mode phone, which has proven so popular “we can’t supply sufficient quantity to the market,” Nishigaki said.
The new handset folds open and has a large, color screen that holds 10 lines of 10 characters each.
NEC also seeks to increase the offerings and customer base for its Electron Devices unit, which Nishigaki said is the second-largest semiconductor business in the world. Optical and radio-frequency devices, rechargeable batteries and component solutions for mobile terminals are the focus of this part of the enterprise, he said.
