All Set For J-Phone Name Change
The battle for control of Japan’s J-Phone, which raged from 1999 to 2001 between British Telecom and Vodafone ended with Vodafone scoring the win. Chalk another retreat up to excessive debt incurred by over-extending during the boom years. Come October, Vodafone is set to write the J-Phone brand into the history books, and change the name on the shingle to Vodafone. By November, the wireless Internet services of J-Phone, ‘J-Sky’, will be renamed ‘Live!’ to match the global brand. We feel that it’s about time Vodafone started realizing more economies of scale from its 27 national carriers. So-called “synergies” of consolidation are hard to claim while regional operations function independently with separate brands, technologies, and services.
