www.WirelessFederation.com/news: NTT DoCoMo has regained its first position in terms of new subscribers. The operator has signed up 60% more new subscribers in March, attributed to the low phone cost won back subscribers in a key sales month ahead of the new academic year. DoCoMo refurbished its brand in 2008 with bigger discounts for long-time subscribers and cheaper mobile handsets, gained 278,200 new subscribers on a net basis compared with the same month a year ago.

KDDI made an addition of 223,100 new subscribers, but continued to trail third-ranked Softbank, which gained 381,700 net sign-ups. Subscriber gain at Softbank was down 30%, but it beat its rivals for the 22nd straight month helped by low-cost fee plans and aggressive advertising.

eAccess is placed at 4th osition, signed up 121,900 net new subscribers, driven by strong sales of wireless data cards sold with smaller and cheaper laptops such as Asusek Computer’s Eee PC. PHS provider Willcom made added 6,100 subscribers taking its total subscriber base to 4.56 million in March.