DoCoMo, AT&T; Wireless Talking?

Japan’s largest mobile-phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo Inc., is in talks with AT&T; Corp. about taking a minority stake in the U.S. group’s mobile-phone arm, the Financial Times reported.

DoCoMo is believed to be considering taking a stake of between 10% and 20% in AT&T; Wireless, the newspaper’s online edition said on Monday. Such a stake could cost $5 billion to $10 billion, based on the value of AT&T;’s tracking stock, FT reported.

DoCoMo was tight-lipped on the report, although it has been known for months that it has been in contact with several candidates, including AT&T;, in its search for a U.S. partner to roll out a high-speed cellular-phone service.

“As we always say, we are in a broad search for business partners and we cannot comment on any specific talks until we reach an agreement,” a DoCoMo spokeswoman said.

AT&T; officials were not immediately available for comment.

AT&T;’s recently announced plan to restructure into four units was understood to have made an investment more attractive to the Japanese carrier, FT said.

However, AT&T;’s asking price for such an investment in its wireless unit is believed to be the biggest stumbling block, the newspaper said. Citing a source close to the negotiations, FT said discussions with AT&T; had been progressing for some time.

DoCoMo’s efforts to break into the U.S. market also involve talks with Cingular, a wireless-phone joint venture between BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc.

DoCoMo, which has more than 12 million users surfing the Web in Japan on its Internet-enabled “i-mode” phones, is hoping to build on that success when it launches third-generation (3G) mobile services next May, and the United States is a key part of its global strategy.

DoCoMo will be the first wireless carrier to offer 3G services, which will be able to deliver video and CD-quality sound over mobile connections more than five times faster than current speeds.

It hopes to be the first to deliver such services globally, making it the focus of intense scrutiny over whether additional shares may be issued to fund its expansion plans.

Such funding needs would arise quickly if DoCoMo were to cement an alliance with another partner, particularly in the U.S.

DoCoMo is aiming to spread use of the so-called W-CDMA technology to make it the global standard for 3G networks.

President and Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa has hinted that any deal involving NTT DoCoMo and a major American company would not happen until sometime next year.

In another development, IBM is expected to announce today a major services agreement with NTT that gives the world’s No. 1 computer maker a big boost in telecoms services in Asia, industry sources said Monday. The total value of the deal to IBM and NTT Comware is $12 billion to $14 billion over 10 years, the sources said.