NTT DoCoMo is looking to invest in Asian carriers outside of Japan. This isn’t a surprise after the aggressive behaviour of the mobile operator this year, and it echoes the actions of South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom. They’ve even got the same reason for looking abroad: a mature, saturated market in their home country is slowing growth.
We’ve been reporting on various moves NTT has made with Indian operator TaTa Teleservices. Their joint-venture, TATA DOCOMO, has been expanding it’s 3G capable GSM network aggressively in India. But other Asian countries have been sealing DoCoMo deals as well. Axiata in Bangladesh and U-Mobile in Malaysia have both seen significant investment from NTT.
Via Reuters
What we think?
NTT DoCoMo really seems to be shining under pressure. The threat from the relatively new Japanese operator Softbank has spurred them on to greater efforts. We’ve seen massive efforts not only in foreign expansion, but also towards mobile video, LTE and Android. NTT really seems to be pushing as hard they can to diversify and expand into territories with growing popularity. Yesterdays announcement about subscriber numbers indicates that their strategies are working somewhat.
