Fujitsu, NEC and NTT DoComo forge new smartphone chipset venture

Fujitsu, NEC and NTT DoCoMo came together to forge a new chipset joint venture aimed at cutting their reliance on foreign chip vendors. The three companies are giving the venture another try after a similar effort that also included Samsung Electronics and Panasonic fell apart in April. The new venture, called Access Network Technology, will start operations in August, and Fujitsu will have a majority stake. The three companies will develop the wireless technology for the chipsets but will outsource production. In April, the venture including Samsung and Panasonic, which had been focused on producing LTE chipsets, fell apart amid disagreement over how it should be run. This time around,   Fujitsu, NEC and NTT DoCoMo said they will "bring together technologies from each of the companies to develop industry-leading communications platform products, and will provide customers with highly competitive products to meet their needs." Release