Mobile contenders bulk up.(UNWIRED)

Wireless Asia, June, 2006 by Clark, Robert

What goes round comes around in the mobile industry. NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison Telecom have just announced a joint venture to offer i-mode services in Hong Kong and Macau.

That was the original intent when DoCoMo bought its stake in the Hutch Hong Kong mobile unit half a dozen years ago. Hutchison execs could not have been less interested.

Now, on terms undisclosed, they will be part of DoCoMo's attempt to turn its domestic Internet business into a global one.

It's important for the Japanese carrier because it needs the global scale to bring down handset prices. It counts 4.5 million i-mode users in 16 countries, which is good going given the cultural barriers Japanese service firms encounter overseas, but is just a patch on the global...

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