According to newspaper reports, Goldman Sachs will make a ¥25 billion investment in eAccess' mobile phone venture, eMobile. The broadband services firm confirmed the potential investment but said the two companies have not yet made a final agreement. eMobile plans to launch a high-speed data communications service in Japan's metropolitan areas by 2007. The plan parallels the government's move to assign frequencies in the 1.7 GHz band for mobile phone services to up to two service operators. If the government assigns eAccess frequencies, it will be the first time in 12 years that a company entered Japan's wireless market, which is currently dominated by NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Vodafone KK.
For more on Goldman Sachs' investment in eMobile:
- check out this story from Forbes