Reuters reports: “Walt Disney Co, the No. 2 U.S. entertainment company, plans to launch mobile phone service in Japan next spring offering customers animated content, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.”

“Disney would use Japan’s No. 3 mobile phone carrier Softbank Corp’s network and the two would jointly develop handsets, the paper said without citing sources.”

“Initial costs of building base stations have prevented many would-be entrants into Japan’s mobile phone market, dominated by NTT DoCoMo Inc, No. 2 KDDI Corp and Softbank. Disney would be the first company to launch mobile phone service in Japan using another firm’s network.”

“In Japan, carmakers and telecom ventures have used carriers’ network, but the lines have been used to enable car navigation or PC data transmission.”