Nokia plays catch up in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nokia Corp (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will add public wireless LAN access to its handsets in Japan in a bid to keep pace with smaller Japanese rivals that already provide such network connections.

Nokia, the world's biggest handset maker, holds less than a 1 percent market share in the world's most advanced handset market, controlled by makers such as Sharp Corp (6753.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and NEC Corp (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Nokia will link a Local Area Network service to its X02NK handset it supplies to Japan's No.3 carrier Softbank Corp (9984.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) starting Friday, it said in a release on Wednesday.

Japan's top carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has equipped phones with local network connectivity since 2004, when it launched an NEC handset for corporate clients.

The lineup of connected phones this year includes Willcom's D4 handset made by Sharp and NTT DoCoMo's 906i series.

Faster Internet connections enable users to quickly download videos onto their phones and upload photos onto social networking sites.

Nokia supplies handsets to NTT DoCoMo as well as to Softbank.

Shares of NTT DoCoMo closed up 1.3 percent and No.2 KDDI Corp (9433.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) ended up 1.1 percent, while Softbank fell 0.6 percent.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Chris Gallagher)