Nokia To Be MVNO In Japan

Nokia Corp plans to launch a mobile phone service in Japan next spring, a move expected to intensify competition among Japanese cell phone carriers, Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Saturday.

Finnish cell phone manufacturer Nokia is expected to use lines owned by Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier, NTT Docomo Inc, under an arrangement called mobile virtual network operator, the paper said.

Nokia will first offer the service with high-end models to establish a strong brand, Yomiuri said.

Nokia is the world’s biggest handset maker but holds less than a 1 percent market share in Japan. Major Japanese cell phone makers, such as Sharp Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and NEC Corp, dominate the world’s most advanced handset market.

American site ‘BoyGeniousReport’ have said

Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia, in a pretty bold move, will make its way to Japan to start its own MVNO. We’re not quite sure what Nokia is thinking, given the lack of success of MVNOs in the past, but they will be piggy-backing off of NTT DoCoMo’s network next year. Unlike other MVNOs, however, Nokia will be offering up high-end devices in order to compete in Japan’s tough mobile market. The only device we’ve ever really liked to come from an MVNO is Helio’s Ocean by Pantech. Nokia may be the world’s largest handset manufacturer, but they hold only 1% of the market share in Japan. It’s going to be interesting to see how this one shapes up as Nokia faces some serious competition with the likes of Sharp and Matsushita dominating that market.

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