TOKYO-Wireless local area network (WLAN) service targeting the retail and travel industries is set to expand quickly in Japan. Some market watchers said that once the WLAN business takes off, it might be a rival for cellular phone service and may rob the cellular...
TOKYO—Vodafone Group, world's largest mobile operator, on Friday said it successfully purchased 693,368 shares, which represents 21.7 percent, of Japan Telecom. Due to the purchase, Vodafone's stake in Japan Telecom, the third-largest mobile operator in Japan, will increase to 66.7 percent. Also Vodafone's stake...
TOKYO—Chris Gent, president of Vodafone Group, said that Vodafone is going to send a new president to Japan Telecom in January. Vodafone is in the process of raising its stake in Japan Telecom from its current 45 percent to 66.7 percent.Due to the reshuffle...
NEW YORK—Any plans to take the J-Phone wireless business of Japan Telecom public must wait until the performance of its parent improves, said Chris Gent, chief executive of Vodafone Group, which recently announced its offer to acquire a controlling interest in the Japanese carrier."Chairman...
Any plans to take the J-Phone wireless business of Japan Telecom Co. Ltd. public must wait until the performance of its parent improves, said Chris Gent, chief executive of Vodafone Group plc, which recently announced its offer to acquire controlling interest in the Japanese...
TOKYO—Japan's KDDI Corp. said it was postponing the launch of its high-speed mobile Internet access service from this fall to next April.KDDI said the cdma2000 1x-based service planned by its au wireless subsidiary was not being delayed by standards glitches, but by software issues."There...
TOKYO—J-Phone Group, a mobile business unit of Japan Telecom on 1 October will start providing a variety of services using Disney characters for its J-Sky service users, J-Phone announced on 10 September. J-Sky is an Internet access services provided by J-Phone.According to J-Phone,...
TOKYO—The board of directors for the four J-Phone Communications Co. Ltd. companies; East, Central, West and Japan Telecom, agreed to merge their companies into a single J-Phone structure.The merged company, to be named J-Phone Co. Ltd., is expected to provide faster decision-making processes, increased...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc has completed its acquisition of the interests of British Telecommunications Plc (BT) in Japan Telecom Co. Ltd. (JT) and J-Phone Communications Co. Ltd. (JPC) for a cash consideration of about $4.348 billion.
After a year in which its global customer base increased from 53 million customers to a staggering 83 million customers, U.K.-based Vodafone Group plc said it will turn its attention this year from rounding up more subscribers to making money off the ones it...
In a dramatic move to bolster its value and trim debt, British Telecom said last week it would spin off its wireless unit, BT Wireless, as a separately traded company, and temporarily suspend dividend payments. The telecom giant said it expects the moves to...
LONDON-Vodafone Group plc has agreed to pay $6.9 billion total for British Telecommunications plc's interests in Japan and Spain.The sale includes BT's 20-percent stake in Japan Telecom and its 20-percent stake in J-Phone Communications, JT's mobile subsidiary, making Vodafone the largest shareholder of JT...
TOKYO-Vodafone Group, the largest mobile carrier in the world, announced in May it will acquire British Telecommunications' (BT) entire stake in Japan Telecom Group (JT) for 652.3 billion yen (US$5.4 billion). Following the deal, Vodafone Group will hold a 45-percent stake in Japan Telecom...
GENEVA-How the mighty have fallen. British Telecommunications (BT), once ranked among the world's most powerful carriers, is finding itself buckling under a crippling mountain of debt in a climate where raising equity in the telecom/information technology (IT) sector has hit an all-time low. In...
NEW YORK-Not surprisingly, the number and size of mergers and acquisitions for which a dollar value was made public declined markedly in all industries when compared to the same period a year ago, Los Angeles-based Mergerstat reported.Announced transactions involving U.S. companies totaled 2,224, down...
TOKYO-Toyota Motor Corp. sold its stakes in three regional wireless companies to Japan Telecom for an undisclosed amount, international press reports said. J-Phone Communications is Japan's second-largest mobile carrier and is owned 54 percent by Japan Telecom.Toyota held 1.97 percent of J-Phone East, 1.98...
TOKYO-Citing a delay in hardware development, Japan Telecom Co. Ltd. said it would delay the deployment of third generation services from this December until summer 2002. The delay will place Japan's third-largest operator more than a year behind market leader NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s 3G...
LONDON-As speculated earlier this week, Vodafone Group plc said it agreed to acquire AT&T's Corp.'s 10-percent economic interest in Japan Telecom Co. for $1.35 billion in cash. Following the completion of the transaction, Vodafone will hold 25 percent of Japan Telecom's equity.The acquisition marks...
NTT DoCoMo, announced that it set the public offering prices for new shares at $17,500 per share for 400,000 shares. If the additional 60,000 shares are issued at the same price, the issue amount will total $8.1 billion, the firm said. The payment due...
TOKYO-KDDI, the sole cdmaOne operator in Japan, has been expanding its international roaming services, fully using its universally standardized cdmaOne technology.In January, KDDI launched international roaming services in Canada in cooperation with Telus Mobility, a major Canadian carrier. Canada will become the fifth country...
TOKYO-KDDI, the second-largest carrier in Japan, has decided to launch its third-generation (3G) services based on High Data Rate (HDR) technology. KDDI will launch its HDR services initially using the 800 MHz band, the spectrum in which it provides second-generation (2G) services.KDDI is scheduled...
TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo has been gearing up its global strategy, concluding one investment agreement after another. Since December 1999, it has invested in carriers in Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Britain.At the end of November 2000, DoCoMo announced another big deal with a U.S. carrier,...
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Vodafone Group plc and Ireland's Eircom plc reached an agreement calling for Vodafone to acquire the business of Eircell, Eircom's mobile operator, for about $4.1 billion in stock.According to the deal, Eircell will be demerged from Eircom into a newly incorporated company, Eircell...
Chris Gent has had quite a year.For the chief executive of Vodafone Group plc, 2000 began with a hostile takeover of Mannesmann AG, parent of its rival Orange plc, and continued with a spending spree for third-generation licenses across Europe. The year also marked...
