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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-gaisha Wirukomu}} is a [[Japan]]ese [[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 of Japan, and has the largest share of the 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 under the brand 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 20 mW 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 during the network's early days, although these problems were eventually solved. 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 than the competition. |
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The market between PHS operators and [[cellular telephone|cellular telephony companies]] was incredibly fierce, and until October 1996 it was not possible to make calls between PHS and cellular telephones. Even then, charges for calls between the two different systems were high. |
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PHS became popular because of its lower cost, causing cellular telephone companies to reduce their rates, which were initially considered too expensive. Furthermore, the coverage of the cellular companies quickly expanded to comparable levels. With the competitive advantage of PHS reduced, DDI-Pocket went through difficult years at the end of the 1990's and beginning of 2000s. The declining market for PHS service has caused the launch of its flat-rate service and its buyout by Carlyle. |
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On February 18, 2010, Willcom filed for bankruptcy with 206 billion yen in liabilities.<ref name=Eki-Alpeyev>{{cite news|newspaper=Bloomberg BusinessWeek|date=February 18, 2010, 4:31 AM EST|author=Yoshinori Eki and Pavel Alpeyev|title=Willcom Files for Bankruptcy Protection in Japan (Update3)}}</ref> This took place after Willcom was unable to reschedule its debt payments; the company had been losing subscribers to competing networks with greater data speeds.<ref name=Eki-Alpeyev/> |
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==Stock holders== |
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:''As of June 23, 2009''<ref name="About WILLCOM">http://www.willcom-inc.com/en/company/willcom/index.html "About WILLCOM - Shareholders"</ref> |
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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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*[[G-BOOK]] |
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*[[Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corporation of Japan]] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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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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[[it:Willcom]] |
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[[ja:ウィルコム]] |
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Latest revision as of 16:06, 4 October 2023
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