Japana's top carrier DoCoMo is in talks to buy a stake in India's Tata Teleservices in a deal that may exceed 100 billion yen €666.1 million (US$930 million) , a Reuters report said.
The Reuters report said the news boosted shares in a unit of Tata Teleservices by as much as 5.1% in a weak Mumbai market.
DoCoMo is increasingly expanding its overseas presence as growth in the Japanese market slows. The Tata deal would follow its €250.7 million (US$350 million) investment in Bangladesh's number three cellphone carrier TM International.
The sources said DoCoMo's investment would likely only amount to a minority stake and it was unclear if the Japanese firm would clinch the deal as other carriers were keen to take a stake in sixth-largest player Tata Teleservices, part of the Tata Group conglomerate.
A spokesman for Tata Teleservices in New Delhi declined to comment on the matter.
India, with nearly 300 million mobile users, is the second-largest wireless market in the world after China, and still has the potential for further huge growth as just over a quarter of its billion-plus population use cellphones now.