Nokia will this month announce its intention to launch a network services division in 2009, it has been claimed.

Japanese-language website Yomiuri Shimbun has reported that the Finnish phone giant will initially launch the service in Japan during February 2009.

The country currently has three main network providers: NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank. Nokia’s expected to rent wireless communication networks from DoCoMo, the paper alleged.

However, Nokia network connections may initally be restricted to Vertu phones - Nokia’s luxury handset arm.

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