Japan's Fujitsu Ltd said it is considering starting mobile data services for business use by leasing bulk capacity from a telecoms carrier to tap into a potentially lucrative corporate mobile market.

A spokesman for Fujitsu, Japan's largest computer maker, said the company may offer such services to corporate users via the network of a unit of Japan's number-two telecom carrier, KDDI Corp 9433.T . As the mobile market for consumers is nearing saturation, mobile operators are targetting corporate users, a relatively untapped and potentially high-margin segment.

"We are considering renting the DDI Pocket network as a way to provide a corporate solution business," the spokesman said. "But the plan has not fully materialised yet."

Already three companies are leasing the PHS (personal handyphone system) network from KDDI's wireless arm DDI Pocket as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), offering mobile services without having their own communications facilities.

DDI Pocket started wholesaling its network last year, giving opportunities for non-telecoms companies to tap into the world's second-largest telecoms market.

The Japanese government has also been pushing incumbent carriers to open up their networks to foster competition.

A government panel studying deregulation in the telecoms industry is expected to submit a report to Telecommunications Minister Toranosuke Katayama in August, suggesting various measures such as easier entry.

DDI Pocket said an MVNO pays a leasing fee of 30 million yen ($240,000) every month to offer data transmission at 128 kbps (kilobits per second), twice as fast as the conventional fixed-line telephone service.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily said on Thursday that Fujitsu plans to start the service for corporate clients as early as July, and may expand its client base to individuals including users of its Internet service provider unit Nifty Corp. The spokesman said Fujitsu has decided neither when the service would be launched nor whether the company would expand it to individual clients.

Fujitsu shares were down 0.56 percent at 881 yen as of 0336 GMT, while the Nikkei average .N225 lost 0.81 percent. ($1=125.24 yen)