Masaki Yoshikawa employs 80 people in an office on Manhattan’s Park Avenue. All told, they serve only a few thousand customers, mostly frequent travelers from Japan who prefer to use their own mobile phones with Japanese characters while in the U.S. But that’s all right. Yoshikawa’s office is actually an outpost for NTT DoCoMo USA, a little-known subsidiary of Japan’s largest wireless company. His primary mission is to watch out for new business opportunities, and Yoshikawa thinks he has just spotted one.
On Nov. 30, Google confirmed it will file an application with the Federal Communications Commission to bid in January’s auction of some very valuable wireless spectrum. “Google is trying to acquire spectrum now. Maybe they will be looking for a partner” for their network, Yoshikawa tells BusinessWeek.com, stressing that no talks have been held by the companies. “Perhaps we can be involved in the process.”
That DoCoMo is on a U.S. prowl is striking, given the company’s painful past in the States. Only three years ago DoCoMo threw up a white flag and sold its 16% stake in AT&T Wireless (now a part of AT&T’s mobile business), taking a $3.3 billion loss on its $9.8 billion investment. Yet the Japanese company isn’t the only Asian telecommunications provider eyeing the market or actually dipping its toes.
China Wants In, Too
Another Japanese carrier named KDDI is already testing a cutting-edge wireless service in the Northeast. Elsewhere, Korea’s SK Telecom recently boosted its ownership in Helio, a struggling youth-oriented service, by pledging up to $270 million in extra funding. And the Korean company may be looking for additional investments: In November, it bid unsuccessfully with Providence Equity Partners for a $5 billion slice of the troubled carrier Sprint Nextel, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Chinese companies and investors, having made a fortune in that…