Japan's DoCoMo planning big push in Asia

Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo says it is planning a big expansion into Asian markets like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in an effort to capitalize on the expected demand for 3G services. DoCoMo doesn't have a stellar track record when it comes to international acquisitions. In 2000, the company committed about $23 billion in acquisitions to port its i-mode technology, including more than $15 billion for a share of AT&T Wireless, an investment which turned out to be ill-timed. Problems signing up i-mode subscribers in Europe and the tanking of the telecom industry in 2001-2002 took a heavy toll on DoCoMo's international investments. The firm wrote off almost $15 billion in international share value in 2001-2002 and stopped international expansions in early 2002. It ended up making technical alliances with operators in Europe and Asia to push i-mode. Now DoCoMo faces a super-saturated market in Japan and needs to find growth elsewhere.

For more about NTT DoCoMo's international plans:
- read this article from the Financial Times