Softbank is expected to complete its acquisition of US operator Sprint by the end of this month, prompting Kaouru Kato, DoCoMo’s president and chief executive to tell the FT that the group would consider buying assets outside Japan “if a good opportunity arose”.
NTT DoCoMo, which is the largest mobile operator in Japan by subscribers, has encountered difficulties with investments outside of its domestic market, and was one of the many foreign operators caught up in India’s 2G auction scandal. Tata Teleservices, of which NTT DoCoMo has a 26% stake, had three of its licences cancelled.
Elsewhere, the company has made minority stakes in US operator AT&T and in debt-ridden KPN in the Netherlands.
Yet with rivals KDDI and Softbank gaining customers in the ultra competitive Japanese market, it is thought NTT DoCoMo could again turn its attentions to making investments overseas.
