Japanese operator KDDI saw its revenues and profits rise in first half of financial 2007, boosted by performance in the company’s mobile segment. Operating revenues rose by 9.3 percent year-on-year to JPY 1.6 trillion, from JPY 1.5 trillion in the year-ago quarter. Operating income was up 37.7 percent at JPY 229.5 billion, from JPY 166.7 trillion last year, as a strong mobile business (au and Tu-Ka) absorbed losses of the fixed-line business. KDDI ended the six-month period with a net income of JPY 136 billion, up from JPY 101.4 billion in the year-ago period.Operating revenue for au and Tu-Ka increased 5.7 percent to JPY 1.3 trillion, from JPY 1.2 trillion last year. Mobile operating income rose 23.9 percent year-on-year to JPY 242.8 billion, compared with JPY 196.1 billion last year. Net income for the mobile segment was JPY 144.8 billion, up from JPY 118 billion in the same period last year. KDDI ended the period with 26.4 million mobile customers, compared with 24.2 million last year. Au had 24.5 million subscribers and Tu-Ka’s customer base dropped to 1.9 million with customers being migrated to the au service. The company’s churn rate for the au brand stood at 0.95 percent, an improvement of the 1.21 percent in the same period last year.

Fixed line revenues stood at JPY 362.4 billion, compared with JPY 286.2 billion in the year-ago period. KDDI narrowed the operating loss in the fixed segment to JPY 16.8 billion, from an operating loss of JPY 29.5 billion last year. The net loss stood at JPY 8.5 billion, from a loss of JPY 16.2 billion in the same half last year. The company had 2.8 million DION internet subscribers, of which 1.5 million ADSL subscribers. The number of FTTH subscribers rose to 192,000 from 138,000 last year. The company ended the period with 2.4 million Metal Plus voice subscribers, up from 677,000 in the same period last year.

Source- http://www.telecompaper.com