NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile firm, is looking overseas for new handsets - traditionally the operator has relied on local, Japanese handset makers such as Fujitsu, NEC and Matsushita.

Masao Nakamura, chief executive of DoCoMo, told the Financial Times his company is to buy a high-end phone from Motorola aimed at business users. It is also talking to Nokia about a lower-end 3G phone. This gives Motorola and Nokia a chance to break into the huge Japanese market, particularly useful with margins and market share in Europe under threat.

DoCoMo has also done a deal with mmo2 to license imode - its multimedia platform.

In separate news Nokia is to spend $100m to $150m on an Indian factory, which will eventually employ 2,000 people. Nokia has nine manufacturing facilities around the world. ®

Related stories

O2 to bring i-mode to UK in 2005
Microsoft excluded from DoCoMo's ecosystem
NTT DoCoMo, mmO2 to 'partner' on UK i-mode