Posts Tagged Japan
Softbank tops mobile additions table for 24th month running (Japan)
Softbank Mobile added more new users than its rivals for the 24th month running in April, aided in part from a price reduction on the Apple iPhone 3G. Data published by the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) of Japan showed that Softbank added a net 105,400 contracts last month, keeping its nose just ahead of fourth-placed eMobile with a net gain of 102,800. The TCA said eMobile’s performance was buoyed by the bundling of a low-priced mobile personal computer and a datacard, which attracted both business and residential customers. Market leader DoCoMo took third spot with a net gain of 89,300 and au-branded KDDI Corp gained 57,500. PHS operator Willcom meanwhile, reported a net decrease of 10,600.
Add comment May 13, 2009
Mobile base reaches 106.1 million users at end-January
According to data published by the Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA), Japan was home to 106.1 million mobile subscribers by 31 January 2008, thanks to the net addition of 269,000 new connections in the month. The country’s third largest operator by subscribers, Softbank Mobile, once again led the pack in terms of net sign-ups, adding 120,400 new customers to close January with more than 20.12 million subscribers. It was followed by number one operator NTT DoCoMo, which added a net 64,300 new users to reach a total of 54.22 million, while KDDI gained just 12,600 mobile users to end the month with 30.56 million. Fourth placed eMobile signed up an impressive 71,700 net new subscribers to lift its total to 1.19 million and PHS operator Willcom shipped 20,800 customers for a total of 4.55 million.
Add comment February 9, 2009
Mobile, internet operations drive NTT 9M profits
Japanese behemoth Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) today reported a 70% jump in net profits for the period April-December 2008, fuelled by solid growth at its fixed line internet business and mobile division NTT DoCoMo. The Tokyo-based telco said profit for the period under review climbed to JPY544.08 billion (USD6.5 billion), up from JPY322.22 billion in the corresponding period of 2007. Group revenues fell from JPY7.84 trillion to JPY7.73 trillion, although operating profit rose by 16% from JPY874.38 billion to JPY1.01 trillion. NTT has maintained its full year outlook of net profits of JPY560 billion on sales of JPY10.6 trillion, for the twelve months to 31 March 2009.
Add comment February 5, 2009
Softbank 3Q profit up 2%; maintains full-year outlook
Japanese telecoms group Softbank Corp has reported a 2% rise in third-quarter operating profit as a result of its decision to lower voice call charges and reduce handset subsidies, but stuck to its forecast for modest full-year growth of 4.8% to JPY340 billion (USD3.8 billion). In the three months ended 31 December 2008 Softbank posted operating profit of JPY94.7 billion, up 2% year-on-year from JPY92.4 billion profit previously. The operator said its results were bolstered by strong performances from its fixed line operation and at Yahoo Japan Corp, in which Softbank has a 41% stake. On the results, Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son said: ‘The impact of discounts was still big until December, but since more and more people will come out of their 24-month payment period from now on, we can expect big profit growth … The actual operations are improving strongly.’
Add comment February 5, 2009
UQ Communications soft launches mobile Wimax (Japan)
Japanese Wimax operator UQ Communications plans a soft launch of its mobile Wimax (IEEE 802.16e) service called ‘UQ Wimax’ this month. UQ will test the services in all 23 wards of Tokyo, in Yokohama, and Kawasaki, and is seeking 5,000 trial users. The company will officially launch nation-wide services at the start of July this year. Intel will provide the company with embedded Wimax devices, including Intel Centrino 2 processor-based notebooks and Intel Atom processor-based netbooks in the coming months. UQ Communications will offer flat-rate plans, with the basic plan starting at JPY 4,480 per month.
Add comment February 4, 2009
SoftBank, eMobile close to brokering network deal (Japan)
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that SoftBank Mobile and eMobile have entered the final stages of negotiations over a tie-up in wireless data communications services in Japan. According to people familiar with the situation, if the deal goes ahead, Softbank Mobile, the country’s third largest mobile operator by subscribers, plans to introduce a flat-rate system for the services, using eMobile’s network. Softbank is looking to launch the new offer in spring 2009 – marking the first mobile virtual network operator deal between telecoms companies in Japan. The tie-up will allow both companies to take on bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in the hotly contested domestic market. In addition, Softbank Mobile plans to boost data-transmission speeds and set the rate for the service close to JPY4,980 (USD55.58) – similar to a two-year deal being proposed by eMobile and the lowest in the Japanese mobile sector.
Add comment February 3, 2009
DoCoMo’s nine-month profits up 16%, announces 2G shutdown March 2012
Japan’s mobile market leader by subscribers NTT DoCoMo recorded net profit for the nine months to the end of December 2008 of JPY437.7 billion (USD4.86 billion), up 16% from a year earlier, whilst operating income rose 19% year-on-year to JPY746.8 billion, despite revenues falling 4% to JPY3.38 trillion. The bottom-line improvement was partly attributed to handset sales and reduced churn. As of 31 December, the company had 54.16 million subscribers, up 220,000 from three months earlier. DoCoMo maintained its forecast for its fiscal year ending March, with a predicted net income of JPY495 billion, operating profit of JPY830 billion and JPY4.6 trillion in total sales.
DoCoMo also announced that it will terminate its 2G ‘Mova’ mobile service on 31 March 2012. At the end of 2008, around 88% of its total subscribers were on its 3G network. The remaining 6.7 million will be offered incentives to transfer from the legacy PDC (Personal Digital Communications) platform to W-CDMA/HSPA technology.
Add comment January 30, 2009
NTT Docomo grows nine-month net income 16%
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo reported revenues for the nine months to December of JPY 3.38 trillion, down 4.1 percent from JPY 3.52 trillion in the year-earlier period. Service revenues fell 8.8 percent to JPY 2.79 trillion. However, operating income rose 19.5 percent to JPY 746.8 billion, and net income totalled JPY 437.7 billion, up 16.3 percent from JPY 376.5 billion in year-ago period. Docomo ended December with 54.16 million subscribers, 87.7 percent of which are Foma subscribers. Churn in third quarter improved to 0.44 percent from 0.74 percent a year earlier, reflecting the effect of the new discount programmes and handset instalment plans. Blended ARPU was JPY 5,820 in the nine-month period, versus JPY 6,470 a year earlier. For the full year, Docomo maintained its forecast of JPY 4.59 trillion in revenues, operating income of JPY 830 billion, and a net income of JPY 495 billion.
Add comment January 30, 2009
Nokia launches ‘premium’ mobile service (Japan)
Nokia of Finland has launched a ‘premium’ mobile service in Japan using its high-end Vertu handset brand as a platform and piggybacking on NTT DoCoMo’s network to provide MVNO services to customers. The world’s biggest handset maker says the new service will be run by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) as a managed service, allowing the MVNO to introduce value added services (VAS) without the need to invest in its own software, equipment, human resources and skills.
In November 2008 Nokia announced it was withdrawing from the Japanese mobile handset market, blaming the decision on its inability to make inroads in a country that heavily favours locally-developed technologies. However, the vendor said at the time it would continue to market its high-end, niche mobile phone Vertu. The announcement came just days after CommsUpdate reported that Nokia had revealed plans to enter the mobile market in Japan this year through an MVNO partnership with DoCoMo.
Add comment January 27, 2009
MIC to issue up to four 4G mobile licences (Japan)
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) in Japan has reportedly outlined plans to allocate spectrum for so-called ‘4G’ mobile services to up to four carriers, reversing its original policy of selecting just two or three firms for the available frequencies. The licences, which will allow the winners to deliver data communications speeds comparable to those offered by fibre-optic services, could be up for grabs as early as June 2009. Antara News reports the MIC’s change of heart came after it decided to use a portion of the 1.7GHz band for 4G services instead of just the 1.5GHz band. Japan’s four main wireless operators – NTT DoCoMo, Softbank Mobile, KDDI and eMobile – have all expressed interest in the licences and it now seems likely that these four will each receive one of the new concessions.
Add comment January 27, 2009
KDDI reports solid rise in 3Q profit, maintains growth forecast (Japan)
Japan’s second largest telecoms group by subscribers KDDI Corp posted operating profits of JPY143.8 billion (USD1.6 billion) for its fiscal third-quarter ended 31 December 2008, up from JPY121.4 billion in the corresponding year earlier period. The operator said the strong growth in profit was the result of lower handset subsidies which counteracted an anticipated slowdown in handset sales; KDDI has maintained its full-year growth forecast despite the global downturn.
Unlike many other telecoms companies that have cut their outlooks in recent months, KDDI has remained strong thanks to the introduction of a new business model that allowed it to cut the costly subsidies it pays to retailers. However, KDDI president Tadashi Onodera has warned that poor handset sales and rising costs have already forced it to up its subsidies and in some cases, sell older handset models for next to nothing as the impact of the economic recession increases. ‘Corporate customers who use phones just for talking have usually been first to cut their usage when the economy turns bad,’ the president told a press briefing. ‘Not only can we not get new subscriptions, but also the chance of service cancellations is not zero.’ Nonetheless, KDDI, reaffirmed its forecast for a JPY443 billion profit in the full year to 31 March 2009, up 10.6% year-on-year, but below a consensus forecast of JPY469 billion in a poll of 18 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
KDDI said its revenue in the period under review dropped 2.4% year-on-year to JPY882.4 billion due to lower average revenue per user (ARPU) and falling handset sales. The dip in revenues surprised the company which had expected to see the positive impact on revenues of new subscriber additions offsetting the drop in ARPU. KDDI has trimmed its FY2008/09 revenue target by 5% to JPY3.5 trillion and cut its target for cellphone sales by nearly 25% to 10.9 million units.
Add comment January 23, 2009
NTT DoCoMo to complete TTSL investment by March 2009 (Japan, India)
According to Bloomberg, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has said its USD2.7 billion investment in Indian wireline and mobile operator Tata Teleservices (TTSL) will be completed by March 2009. NTT has said that the acquisition of a 26% stake in TTSL has been held up as it awaits approval from local authorities. This is the second delay to the purchase, after it was initially deferred to 8 January by the Japanese cellco, due to the Securities and Exchange Board of India having not approved the transaction.
Add comment January 22, 2009
DoCoMo to shut down 2G service in 2012 (Japan)
Japan’s largest mobile operator by subscribers NTT DoCoMo is reportedly planning to terminate its second-generation (2G) cellular phone service in or around March 2012, in a move that would affect the cellco’s roughly 6.7 million subscribers who currently use it, The Nikkei reported Friday. DoCoMo stopped accepting applications for the 2G service on 30 November 2008, having seen the number of users steadily declining since peaking at 44 million a few years ago. With customers opting for its faster 3G (FOMA) network, the operator has taken the decision to phase out the increasingly outmoded system.
Add comment January 13, 2009
Japan: mobile base tops 105.8 million end-December
According to data published today by Japan’s Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA), the country’s incumbent mobile operators collectively added a net 400,200 new users last month to end the year with a total 105.825 million mobile subscribers. Softbank Mobile recorded 135,200 net additions last month, compared with 36,000 for KDDI’s ‘au’ brand, and 120,400 for the country’s leading operator by subscribers, DoCoMo. At the start of this year, DoCoMo had 54.16 million customers, ahead of KDDI with 30.55 million and Softbank Mobile with 19.99 million. The market’s newest entrant eMobile added 108,600 new users to end the year with 1.12 million, while the leading PHS operator, Willcom, had 4.57 million customers, up just 1,300 from a month before.
Add comment January 12, 2009
Japanese WiMAX Network Launched in Okinawa
Japan’s Okinawa Telemessage, a broadband access service provider has launched a WiMAX Network using Airspan solutions. Beginning with Nanjo City, Okinawa Telemessage will provide more than 500,000 households in Okinawa Prefecture with high-speed broadband access.Operating in the 4.95 GHz frequency band, the WiMAX network deployment is well underway and, upon completion, will consist of more than two hundred Airspan base stations spread over Okinawa Island.
This project benefitted from Japan’s government broadband policy. The government’s ‘u-Japan’ broadband strategy provides for money or tax incentives to cities to deploy broadband with the hopes of completing full broadband coverage to the entire nation by 2010. Nanjo City provided Okinawa Telemessage with roof-top property for placement of base stations, as well as city-owned fiber optic backhauling.
Add comment January 5, 2009
DoCoMo-Tata open offer delays, regulator’s clearance awaited
NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, and Tata Sons have postponed their joint open offer for up to 20 per cent of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd as it is yet to be cleared by the market regulator.
Add comment December 29, 2008
