"We're pretty excited," said Benjamin L. Scott, chief operating officer of Bell Atlantic Mobile, the company's cellular subsidiary.

The Boston-based company said deep losses at McCaw's cellular subsidiary contibuted to its loss.

It has a 67 percent stake in the cellular subsidiary, which has about half of Japan's thriving mobile phone business.

Shares of Sprint PCS, its publicly traded cellular subsidiary, also fell, ending down 23 cents, to $3.50.

Vodafone wants to concentrate on J-Phone, Japan Telecom's profitable cellular subsidiary.

"Our cellular subsidiary continued to expand in the first quarter, with an increase in customers of more than 50 percent on an annualized basis. "

Declining international calls have been sapping the company's revenue, worsening financial problems caused by losses at its cellular subsidiary and the cost of absorbing a former cellular rival.

U S West's cellular subsidiary, fearing the competitive advantage that Metro Mobile would enjoy, quickly adopted the service as well.

The figures for the company's cellular subsidiary were positive, although modest by historic standards.

And it agreed to fold another cellular subsidiary into Telkomsel, doubling its capacity.