IPMobile, the beleaguered licensee in Japan that has been trying to roll out TD-CDMA technology, said it anticipates more than $100 million in support from Distacom Group, a Hong Kong-based investment company, to enable it to roll out services. However, the operator intends to switch from TD-CDMA technology to the Chinese-developed TD-SCDMA 3G standard.
In September, IPMobile saw NextWave sell its 69.23-percent stake [1] in the company back to Mori Trust after purchasing the stake the month prior. NextWave decided its chances of making a profit in the highly competitive Japanese market were slim. NextWave bought the stake to further the deployment of TD-CDMA since it has an interest in developing the technology after acquiring TD-CDMA technology developer IPWireless in April [2].
IPMobile will now ask for permission from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs to switch technologies as it runs into a deadline that requires the operator to roll out service in November.
"Considering more than 20 worldwide vendors have already developed more than 100 kinds of handsets, TD-SCDMA will drastically change procurement costs for equipment and our competitiveness in Japan," said IPMobile.
To read more about IPMobile's TD-SCDMA plans:
- take a look at this article [3] from Nikkei Electronics
Related articles:
NextWave struggles in second quarter [4]
Can NextWave create economies of scale for TD-CDMA? [5]
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/nextwave-leaves-japan-after-month/2007-09-24
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/nextwave-buys-ipwireless-for-up-to235m/2007-04-09
[3] http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071024/141207/
[4] http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/press-release-nextwave-wireless-announces-second-quarter-2007-financial-results
[5] http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/can-nextwave-create-economies-scale-td-cdma/2007-07-16