Kyocera Corp. announced Friday that it will pull the plug on its seven-year involvement in the Iridium global wireless telephone service project.
Kyocera will stop financing Nippon Iridium Corp., the operator of the satellite communications system in Japan. The leading ceramics maker, based in Kyoto, will also end production of mobile phones for Nippon Iridium.
The decision to withdraw from the project followed Nippon Iridium's application to the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry on Thursday for approval to end its service on the grounds that its U.S. parent, Iridium LLC, filed for bankruptcy last August.
Kyocera said it will not change its earnings projection for fiscal 1999, which ends March 31, as extraordinary losses for the withdrawal from the project have already been taken into account.
Kyocera joined the project in 1993. Its success was often questioned due to the use of ordinary mobile phones.
DDI currently holds a 60.5 percent equity stake in Nippon Iridium.