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    NTT Docomo joins Samsung and four others in joint venture to compete with Qualcomm

    NTT Docomo joins Samsung and four others in joint venture to compete with Qualcomm

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    NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications, and Samsung Electronics have all agreed to establish a fabless joint venture company focused on developing and selling semiconductor products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards for mobile devices.

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    Qualcomm
    Qualcomm

    NTT Docomo just announced a basic agreement with five other companies to establish a joint venture to develop and sell globally "feature-rich, small-size, low-power-consumption semiconductor products equipped with modem functionality." According to an NTT Docomo press release, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications, and Samsung Electronics have all agreed to establish a fabless joint venture company focused on semiconductor products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards for mobile devices by the end of March 2012. Rumors of the joint venture were first reported by Nikkei in September.

    The plan calls for Docomo to establish Communication Platform Planning Co., a wholly owned subsidiary, with an investment of ¥450 million (about $5.8 million). According to an earlier Wall Street Journal report, the incentive behind the joint venture is to reduce dependence upon US chipmaker Qualcomm which dominates the baseband chip market with an estimated 80 percent market share.