Kyocera Communications, Inc. (pronounced "key-yo-sarah") is an American manufacturer of

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s for wireless service providers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Kyocera Communications, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Kyocera Corporation is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...

, which also manufactures mobile phones for the Japanese wireless market under various brands.

History

KWC was originally formed in February 2000 when Kyocera acquired

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

-based terrestrial handset division. Upon the purchase of Qualcomm's business unit, Kyocera formed Kyocera Wireless Corp. (KWC). In 2003, Kyocera Wireless India (KWI), based in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, was established as a fully owned subsidiary of KWC, expanding KWC's reach into India's CDMA markets. However, in September 2009, KWC sold KWI to

Mindtree Mindtree Ltd was an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company, headquartered in Bangalore. It is a part of the Larsen & Toubro Group. Since its foundation in 1999, the company has employed over 38,518 employ ...

Ltd. of Bangalore, India. In 2008, Kyocera Corp. acquired the mobile phone division of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. for $375 million, making them the world's sixth-largest cell phone company. On April 1, 2008, they took the North American assets of

Sanyo , stylized as SANYO, is a Japanese electronics company and formerly a member of the Fortune Global 500, ''Fortune'' Global 500 whose headquarters was located in Moriguchi, Osaka, Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo had over 230 subsidiari ...

and created Kyocera Sanyo Telecom, Inc. (KSTI). They also announced that they were entering the GSM handset market, with a focus on the Latin American market. Kyocera continued selling Sanyo-branded phones throughout 2010. On April 1, 2009, Kyocera announced the integration of KWC and KSTI, creating a new, consolidated division called Kyocera Communications, Inc. (KCI), with the headquarters remaining in their San Diego location. KCI remains one of North America's larger handset manufacturers, providing products to multiple wireless carriers including Boost Mobile,

Cricket Wireless Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider, owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T ac ...

MetroPCS Metro by T-Mobile (formerly known as MetroPCS and also known simply as Metro) is an American prepaid wireless service provider and brand owned by T-Mobile US. It previously operated the fifth largest mobile telecommunications network in the U ...

Public Mobile Public Mobile Inc. is a Canadian self-serve mobile brand which is owned by Telus. Launched on March 18, 2010, Public Mobile was one of several new Canadian cellphone providers that started in 2009–10 after a federal government initiative to enc ...

Sprint Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 ...

T-Mobile US T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...

, U.S. Cellular,

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

, and

Virgin Mobile USA Virgin Mobile USA was a no-contract Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It used Sprint's network for coverage. It licensed the Virgin Mobile brand from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group. Virgin Mobile USA was headquartered in Kansas City, Misso ...

. In October 2011, Sprint began offering Kyocera's ''Dura Series'', an exclusive line of rugged phones manufactured by Kyocera Communications using Sprint's new

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...

-based Push to talk service Sprint Direct Connect. In August 2014, Kyocera released the ''Kyocera Brigadier'', the first U.S. smartphone to be equipped with a display made of

sapphire glass Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphi ...

. This technology was carried over to the

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

-distributed versions of the Duraforce Pro (announced August 2016, South Korea name Kyocera Torque) and the Duraforce Pro 2 (announced November 2018).

External links

Kyocera Communications, Inc.

Dura Series by Kyocera

Kyocera Group Global Website

References

{{Kyocera Kyocera Mobile phone manufacturers Electronics companies established in 2008 American companies established in 2008 Companies based in San Diego Mobile phone companies of the United States