Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'Willcom'

Softbank tops pile in mobile adds for eighth month in succession (Japan)

  • January 10th, 2008
  • 2:24 pm

Japanese mobile operator Softbank Mobile made it eight in a row in December, as it won more new subscribers than rivals NTT DoCoMo or KDDI Corp. According to data published today by Japan’s Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA), Softbank recorded 210,800 net additions last month, compared with 138,600 for KDDI’s ‘au’ and ‘TU-KA’ brands, and 121,500 for the country’s leading operator by subscribers, DoCoMo. At the start of this year, DoCoMo had 53.15 million customers, ahead of KDDI with 29.55 million and Softbank Mobile with 17.40 million. The market’s newest entrant eMobile added 83,600 new users to end the year with 205,900, while the leading PHS operator, Willcom, had 4,616,900 customers, up from 4,600,800 a month before.

   

 

DoCoMo to exit PHS following drop in subscribers (Japan)

  • January 7th, 2008
  • 3:13 pm

Japan’s leading mobile operator by subscribers NTT DoCoMo is shutting down its personal handyphone system (PHS) mobile service from today, following another drop in subscriber numbers – down to about 155,000 at the end of December 2007 from a high of around 2.12 million in 1997. The Nikkei daily writes that DoCoMo plans to focus on bolstering its traditional 2G/3G mobile services which have been struggling to compete against those of its main rivals KDDI and Softbank Mobile. DoCoMo’s decision to exit the PHS market leaves Willcom as the sole provider of such services on a nationwide basis. Willcom was awarded a licence to operate next generation high speed wireless internet services at the end of last year plans to introduce a new PHS service in 2009 offering higher communication speeds and enhanced functionality.

   

 

Softbank Mobile again leads subscriber additions in November (Japan)

  • December 10th, 2007
  • 2:34 pm

Japanese mobile operator Softbank Mobile again led in subscriber additions in November, adding 191,600 new customers to end the month with a total of 17.40 million subscribers. Figures from the Telecommunications Carrier Association further show that Softbank was followed by KDDI, which posted net adds of 65,400 comprising 107,200 new au subscribers while the company shed 41,900 TU-KA customers, in-line with the termination plans. KDDI had 29.01 million au subscribers and 399,000 TU-KA users at the end of the month. NTT DoCoMo added 36,300 new subscribers, of which 15,300 were 2in1 subscribers, to reach a total of 53.02 million. DoCoMo ended November with a total of 183,100 2in1 subscribers. The 2in1 service allows a single mobile user to have two phone numbers and e-mail addresses for a flat monthly fee. Newcomer Emobile saw its mobile customer base stable at 122,300. Together, the mobile operators added 305,100 new customers and there were 99.97 million mobile users in the country. The number of PHS users in the country fell by 56,300 to 4.85 million. Willcom lost 21,600 customers to end the month with 4.60 million and NTT DoCoMo, which plans to terminate its PHS service next year, shed 34,700 PHS subscribers and now has a total of 251,800 PHS users.

   

Japan ends July with 98.55 mln mobile users(Japan)

  • August 8th, 2007
  • 2:34 pm

Japan has ended July with a total of 98.55 million mobile users, up from 98.06 million at end-June, according to figures from the Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA). NTT DoCoMo added 81,400 new subscribers in July of which 47,600 were 2in1 customers. The company ended the month with 52.93 million (including 114,500 2in1 contract customers). Rival KDDI added 234,600 au customers in the month and shed a further 43,400 TU-KA customers, in-line with the termination plans. KDDI has a total of 28.90 million mobile subscribers. Softbank mobile increased its customer base to 16.67 million customers, after adding 224,800 new subscribers. Newcomer eMobile’s customer base was stable at 60,200 customers.

Of NTT DoCoMo’s net adds in July, 795,200 chose the company’s WCDMA services which brings DoCoMo’s WCDMA base to a total of 38.65 million. Softbank Mobile added 634,700 WCDMA customers and ended the month with a total of 9.85 million. KDDI’s au service includes 27.81 million CDMA 1X customers, after adding 250,600 new CDMA 1X subscribers during the month. eMobile’s customer base consists entirely of WCDMA subscribers.

DoCoMo further added 43,500 i-mode customers in June to bring its total to 47.77 million. KDDI added 179,600 EZweb customers to reach a total of 24.27 million, and Softbank Mobile’s Yahoo! Keitai user base rose to 13.97 million after adding 134,000 new users.

The number of PHS customers in Japan fell to 5.01 million at the end of May, down by 10,100 as NTT DoCoMo shed 21,400 PHS subscribers. NTT DoCoMo plans to terminate its PSH service in 2008 and currently has 352,600 PHS users. PHS provider Willcom, however, added 11,300 new customers to reach a total of 4.66 million.