Japanese telecom giant to take over mobile carrier

Japanese telecoms giant Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, or NTT, announced Tuesday it will spend 4.3 trillion yen ($38 billion) to buy out and take private its mobile unit NTT DoCoMo in one of the largest ever deals of its kind.

NTT and NTT DoCoMo executives released details of the plan Tuesday.

The move is intended to enhance the competitiveness of the NTT group as it consolidates its services, said NTT's CEO Jun Sawada.

"DoCoMo, as the core of NTT groups, will decrease the price, provide good services and compete on the market as well as push forward research and development. We want to do such things together. I consider this as an expanding treasure," said Sawada.

NTT plans to delist NTT DoCoMo, taking it private to enable the mobile carrier to offer cheaper rates in competition with rivals such as SoftBank and KDDI.

NTT's reported plan dovetails with newly installed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's push for lower telecoms rates. However, Sawada said their decision just coincided with Suga's move.

"Since June, we have been going through a lot of discussions officially. So, we are not doing this to decrease the price. No direct link between them," said Sawada.

"However, by doing this, DoCoMo will get stronger. That's why we are doing this. As the result of this, we could build a stable foundation which apparently could give us power to decrease the price."

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