DoCoMo Looking to Buy More Stakes in Asian Operators

Japan's DoCoMo is in talks with other operators in the Asia-Pacific region about buying a stake in the companies. The company already has stakes in operators in India, Bangladesh and Malaysia.

"Our main target is Asia, and there are some other (promising) countries there. We are in contact (with carriers in those countries)," NTT DoCoMo Chief Executive Ryuji Yamada told Reuters in an interview on Thursday without elaborating.

He ruled out taking stakes in the Chinese mega-carriers as the investment would be financially significant without delivering a sizable share of the firm, but they are in talks about technology collaborations. Japanese rival operator, Softbank Mobile is already in an alliance with China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless to set up a Joint Innovation Lab.

On the web: Reuters

Posted to the site on 10th July 2009