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#REDIRECT [[Ymobile#Willcom]] |
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{{Unreferenced|date=June 2008}} |
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{{R to section}} |
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{{Nihongo|'''WILLCOM Inc.'''|株式会社ウィルコム|Kabushiki Kaisha Wirukomu}} is a [[Japan|Japanese]] [[Personal Handy-phone System|PHS]] operator, offering flat-rate [[wireless network]] data transmission and flat-rate voice calls for its subscribers. |
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{{R from former name}} |
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The company was formerly known as '''DDI Pocket''', a subsidiary of [[KDDI Corporation|KDDI]]. In 2004, the [[Carlyle Group]] acquired a majority stake from KDDI and changed the name of the company in February 2005. |
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== Overview == |
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Willcom, Inc. is a telecommunications company operating a PHS network covering almost all over Japan, and has the largest share of Japanese PHS market. As other PHS operators are withdrawing their services, it is bound to become the only remaining PHS operator. |
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The number of its subscribers passed four million on May 29, 2006. |
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Willcom Okinawa Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary for operations in [[Okinawa]]. |
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== History == |
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The company was founded as a planning-company in 1994, and started to offer telephony services in 1995 (DDI-Pocket). As an operator, it has mainly base stations of 500m[[Electric power|W]]-radio output, unlike other PHS operators, which had mainly built 20mW base stations. |
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The high output level caused some radio interference and it was difficult to place calls in dense areas such as [[Shinjuku]], Tokyo at the early times of the activity, although these problems were solved afterwards. On the other hand, high output (and sensitivity) can also earn wider coverage of area per base station, therefore the operator was able to expand its coverage faster. |
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A tough competition emerged against the [[cellular telephone| cellular telephony companies]], and until October 1996, it was not possible to make call between PHS and cellular telephones. Afterwards, charges between the two different systems remained high. |
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PHS was first popular because of its lower cost, but cellular telephone companies also reduced the charge, which was too expensive from the beginning. Furthermore, the coverage of the cellular companies quickly expanded to comparable levels |
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The competitive advantage of PHS reduced, and DDI Pocket went through difficult years at the end of the 90s and beginning of 2000s, before the launch of its flat-rate service and its buyout by Carlyle. |
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==Stock holders== |
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:''As of January 1, 2005'' |
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*[[Carlyle Group]] 60% |
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*[[Kyocera]] 30% |
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*[[KDDI]] 10% |
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==See also== |
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*[[Personal Handy-phone System|PHS]] |
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*[[AIR-EDGE]] |
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*[[W-SIM]] |
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==External links== |
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*[http://www.willcom-inc.com/en/ Willcom] |
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{{Japanese mobile phone companies}} |
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[[Category:Telecommunications companies of Japan]] |
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[[Category:Mobile phone companies of Japan]] |
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[[Category:Companies established in 1994]] |
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[[ja:ウィルコム]] |
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[[it:Willcom]] |
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Latest revision as of 16:06, 4 October 2023
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