NTT DoCoMo might just enter the US cellphone market, MVNO graveyard wishes it luck
If you've paid any attention whatsoever to the goings-on in the American cellphone market, you'd know that ponying up the dough to start an MVNO here is probably not your best shot at striking it rich. One after another has fallen flat, even ones that had millions (and millions) in marketing dollars behind 'em. That said, Japan's own NTT DoCoMo is mulling the possibility of fully entering the US cell market next year, offering up smartphones and "other high-performance handsets with its i-mode mobile internet service." We're told that the operator may start as an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), leasing capacity from T-Mobile USA or AT&T until it decides on its next move. Call us crazy, but we're guessing it just might have a shot here on US soil if it snags the iPhone, enables all those 3G services that have been running for years on other platforms and only charges one (as opposed to three or four) human limbs for a monthly plan.
[Thanks, shinbunboi]
[Thanks, shinbunboi]
























Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dave @ Sep 6th 2009 10:34AM
leasing capacity from AT&T, now that's funny.
Jamar @ Sep 6th 2009 12:11PM
Well, Hawaii could be considered partly theirs; they helped put up AT&T's 3G network there.
Bob @ Sep 6th 2009 2:02PM
DoCoMo is already in the US. They own one of the cell carriers in Guam and they have a JV in Hawaii. These are the two largest destinations for Japanese tourists.
egloskerry @ Sep 6th 2009 2:01PM
You guys could've done better with that graphic. You have two Helios and an Amp'd in there. What about Disney Mobile? ESPN Mobile? Kajeet (not dead yet, but getting there)? I'm sure there are some others I'm missing.
Kat @ Sep 6th 2009 5:03PM
I would LOVE to see DoCoMo around here.
M0nthAugust @ Sep 6th 2009 6:13PM
I wish docomo would start selling their phones here. No more hassling with hypersims.
Moisiom @ Sep 6th 2009 6:47PM
"snags the iPhone"
iPhone. A company known the world-over for bringing multifunctional superphones with massive screens, megapixel cameras, and more functions than you will ever need to reality, and you think the iPhone is going to make them stand out from the crowd.
pinke123 @ Sep 6th 2009 6:54PM
OH MY GOD, YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MinceyFresh @ Sep 7th 2009 12:43PM
As exciting as this sounds, remember how excited we all were over KDDI Mobile launching in the US! I thought that it would basically be like Helio w/ Japanese phones rather than Korean phones, but nope. It was just a bunch of Sanyo Katanas w/ Japanese firmware.
I hope that whenever the MVNO launches here, DoCoMo friggin BRINGS IT with the J phones. So far, phones from Japanese manufacturers in the US (i.e. Casio, Sanyo, Kyocera, etc; the more recent Sharp-manufactured Sidekicks being the only exception) have been pretty lackluster. *knocks on wood w/ crossed fingers*
Jamar @ Sep 7th 2009 1:32PM
Well, to be quite honest, what KDDI Mobile was selling was CONTENT familiar to Japanese people (and free minutes to Japan); they couldn't bring over their phones because they're all 800MHz only (which is all Verizon now that they've bought Alltel; had they gone MVNO on Alltel we might actually have Japanese phones and they'd still be around today) and Sprint (their host carrier) is 1900MHz-only (until they take down iDen and use that 800MHz spectrum for CDMA) so they didn't promise that. And we all know how loudly the Nextel people will scream if Sprint even THINKS of doing that. What docomo is promising is that they'll be bringing their phones over. And they can. Sharp just pushed out its first quad-band GSM/3G phone for docomo. They've never bothered with quad-band before so there's a point for them. What I'm actually worried about is that they turn into Helio in its later stages, where it gave up importing Korea-only models and started selling the same boring Samsungs as Sprint was.
And Kyocera's dirty little secret is that R&D for their non-Japan-market phones (except for China before they withdrew) is all outsourced. None of it is Japan-designed, let alone Japan-made.