can someone pls clarify the significance of this...

can someone pls clarify the significance of this agreement?

SingTel Mobile & NTT DoCoMo Sign 3G Co-operation Agreement
 
SINGAPORE TELECOMMUNICATIONS LIMITED. 2003-04-22 ASX-SIGNAL-G

HOMEX - Sydney

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SingTel Mobile and NTT DoCoMo, Inc (DoCoMo) today announced an
agreement to jointly explore and develop 3G technology and multimedia
services based on the W-CDMA(1) standard. The agreement also extends
to collaborative efforts in other areas of mobile communications such
as wireless LAN.

Mr Lucas Chow, Chief Executive Officer of SingTel Mobile and
Executive Vice President (Consumer Business) of SingTel, hailed the
signing of the agreement as a landmark for regional mobile
communications.

"This is an important development for both SingTel Mobile and DoCoMo
as we team up to facilitate the growth of 3G services in Asia. The
collaboration will help us take a step towards addressing some of the
key concerns regarding 3G such as evolving common standards, roaming
issues and compatibility of handsets," said Mr Chow.

Dr Keiji Tachikawa, President and CEO of NTT DoCoMo, said: "We are
extremely pleased to be collaborating with SingTel Mobile, Asia's
leading multi-market mobile operator. We believe this partnership
will help us expand W-CDMA-based 3G mobile multimedia services in
Asia. Inter-operability is key to providing customers with seamless
mobile multimedia services anytime, anywhere. This joint initiative
will enable DoCoMo and SingTel Mobile to offer our respective
customers value-added mobile multimedia services."

Under the agreement, both operators will aim for inter-operability
between their respective 3G networks, thereby enabling the provision
of 3G services for roamers between Singapore and Japan.

SingTel Mobile and DoCoMo will share their technological know-how to
look into developing a common and compatible suite of 3G multimedia
services. These will include video streaming, video conference,
location-based services and other applications.

To facilitate this, both operators will seek opportunities for
synchronisation of handsets and for enabling an integrated product
development environment. Joint studies and an exchange of employees
between the two companies are being considered as well.

SingTel and NTT DoCoMo will also jointly explore wireless LAN roaming
opportunities including prospects for integrating 3G and wireless LAN
services.

Mr Chow said: "We are very excited about this cooperation agreement
and the potential benefits it can bring to our respective customers.
SingTel Mobile will certainly share its experiences from this
collaboration with SingTel Optus in Australia and our mobile
associates in the region as well."