NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile telecom carrier, is planning to expand into Asian markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The company aims to exploit the predicted regional boom in high technology demand to cut handset costs. However, China and India have not been included yet. Since Vodafone already had a stake in Bharti, the company felt it would be difficult to select amongst the remaining operators. NTT DoCoMo already has i-mode internet service alliances in Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines. According to a Dow Jones report, NTT DoCoMo has partnered with Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong), a unit of Hutchison Telecommunications International, in which it has around 25 per cent stake, to launch mobile applications related to Hutchison Telecom’s 3G mobile platform in Hong Kong. However, neither company has disclosed any specific plans officially.
