Abstract

Vodafone, a UK-based mobile telecommunication company, entered the Japanese cellular market after it acquired a 26 percent stake in J-Phone, through the acquisition of Airtouch. J-Phone was the third largest player in the Japanese cellular market. Vodafone went on to acquire a controlling stake in J-Phone in 2003. The case details the problems that Vodafone faced in the country due to competition from local players like NTT DoCoMo and KDD, who provided better services and a superior range of handsets, and due to a delay in its rolling out 3G services. It attempts to analyze the reasons for Vodafone's poor performance in the Japanese market. It concludes with a brief discussion on Vodafone's agreement with SoftBank under which it can continue to have access to one of the most developed cellular markets in the world.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Study the mobile phone industry in Japan.
• Understand Vodafone's operations in Japan.
• Analyze the reasons for Vodafone's failure in Japan.

Keywords

Vodafone, Japan, SoftBank, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, J-Phone, NEC Corporation, Listing fees