DoCoMo Korean talks collapse

Two years of talks breakdown over 3G...

Talks between NTT DoCoMo and Korean mobile operator SK Telecom are close to collapse. The Japanese mobile giant has been in negotiations for almost two years to take a 15 per cent stake of SKT. Although price is one sticking factor, another is thought to be the Korean company's reluctance to commit to an early roll-out of the third-generation W-CDMA standard. According to the Financial Times, the deal is "99.9 per cent off". The news will be the latest setback to the adoption of 3G mobile standards worldwide. DoCoMo launched its own W-CDMA network earlier this month.