TOKYO-based NTT Communications opened its first Cambodian branch in response to increased demand for data services from Japanese companies, a company official said yesterday.

“We’re focusing on Japanese companies operating in Cambodia,” Miyazaki Hajime, NTT’s Bangkok-based general manager of products and services, said.

Operating as a subsidiary of NTT Communications (Thailand) Co, he said the new Phnom Penh branch, which opened late last week, would concentrate on data-communications services, such as setting up local area networks.

“We’re still assessing the market situation right now,” and discussions were under way with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to determine what businesses it could pursue, he said.

Hajime said NTT decided to enter the Kingdom after existing Japanese business partners requested that NTT provide data services for their operations here.

“There’s been gathering voices of business wanting to expand in Cambodia,” he said.

NTT Communications is owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the parent company of large mobile-service provider DoCoMo

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However, Miyazaki Hajime says the firm has no intention of fighting for market share in Cambodia’s crowded mobile-service sector.

DoCoMo had been involved in bidding for Mobitel last year, sources say, but Miyazaki said he had no knowledge as to whether other NTT divisions were considering another move for Cambodia’s largest mobile provider.