Following its acquisition of TD-CDMA technology developer IPWireless in April, NextWave Wireless is now moving with TD-CDMA in Japan. The company announced plans to purchase a 69.23-percent stake in Tokyo-based IPMobile from Mori Trust, which bought the stake in April, and to speed up the operator's deployment of TD-CDMA.
IPMobile secured spectrum in the 2 GHz band for mobile services in November 2005 along with Softbank and Emobile. Both of those companies have launched service, but IPMobile has struggled to find financing to deploy TD-CDMA technology. Now IPMobile must launch service by October or risk losing its license. NextWave says it will work to meet that deadline.
The acquisition will make NextWave the only foreign carrier in Japan since Vodafone pulled out of Vodafone KK last year and sold to Softbank Mobile. But as NextWave has stated in the past, it doesn't have the intention of being a mobile operator. "After the launch of IPMobile's commercial network later this year, we look forward to following up with world-class companies in Japan to invest in the future of IPMobile's business," said NextWave Chairman and CEO Allen Salmasi.
For more about NextWave's plans in Japan:
- read this article from TelecomWeb
- check out this release
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- NextWave spells out plans for WiMAX chips