Further indication of the movement toward emerging markets in telecom, the NTT DoCoMo CEO recently indicated their interest in expanding into Asia. While DoCoMo is formidable in its own market and is a pacesetter within the industry (having been the first to build a large mobile data business) it has been substantially less successful in its overseas investments. In fact, the same could be said for the entire NTT group. At the height of the bubble NTT bought Verio for over $10 BN--only to see it evaporate to perhaps a few hundred million in value terms. And DoCoMo wrote off billions a few years ago for its investments in KPN, AT&T and others (believe the figure was $10Bn but need to check the facts). Their strategy at the time was to globalize i-Mode, and they made a string of investments in other mobile operators--putting in cash but not having control. This was similar to Microsofts failed investment scheme in broadband operators in the late 90s early 2000--again writing off billions. If you invest large sums, better to have control.