Japan's biggest telecom giant NTT DoCoMo has announced its decision to sell its 16.5 percent stake in U-Mobile for US$100 million saying 'good bye' to the Malaysian market. DoCoMo had purchased these stocks for the same amount from the Malaysian 3G mobile operator earlier this year.

South Korea's KT Freetel (KTF) had also sold its stakes in the firm to UTV for the same amount earlier this year. KTF and DoCoMo had acquired 33 per cent stakes in the telecom firm in December 2007 for US$200 million, which was later on distributed between both companies.

NTT DoCoMo, a strong competitor of KDDI Corp and Softbank Corp in the highly competitive telecom market of Japan, plans to divert its attention towards Asian telecom market. It has already into collaboration with India-based Tata Teleservices and in Bangladesh-based Axiata.

Malaysia, having 25.6 million subscribers by Q1 2009, as per Mobile World Report, has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the telecom segment, adding new customers each successive day. U- Mobile, having around 890,000 subscribers by the quarter end, rolled out its operations in Malaysia in September 2007, providing 3G services in collaboration with other partners.