Softbank Mobile wins most subscribers in December (Japan)
Softbank Corp’s mobile arm added 324,900 new subscribers in December 2010, recording the largest gain of any of the country’s operators for the ninth month in succession.
According to data published by the Telecommunications Carriers Association of Japan (TCA), Softbank Mobile ended the year with a total of 24.399 million subscribers, with strong uptake reportedly being driven by sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 smartphone.
NTT DoCoMo stood second in terms of net gains, gaining 169,600 subscribers for a total of 57.210 million users; its December gain was nearly double the November figure thanks in part to strong sales of Samsung Galaxy S smartphones. KDDI Corp’s au brand took third spot with a net gain of 95,400 subscribers, lifting its total to just over 32.527 million.
eMobile logged the least net gain of 71,400 for a month-end total of just over 2.923 million, while PHS operator WillCom lost a net 43,500 users for a total of 3.647 million.
DoCoMo tops the chart of net subscriber gains
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Maximum gain in the net new subscriber has been reported by Japan’s NTT DoCoMo in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For the first time in four years, DoCoMo has topped the pile.
1.481 million new contracts have been signed up by DoCoMo which was majorly driven by the popularity of handsets that can be linked to PCs for data communications purposes.
DoCoMo’s gain has pushed Softbank Mobile into second position which reported a net increase of more than 1.243 million new users. For the past two years, Softbank has been leading in the chart. Softbank has been followed by KDDI Corp with a net increase of 1.029 million. Fourth place has been claimed by eMobile with 941,600 subscribers. PHS operator Willcom Inc on the other hand, posted a net decrease of 450,900 subscribers over the period under review.
DoCoMo tops chart after seven years (Japan)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an addition of 148,300 new subscribers last month, Japan’s largest mobile operator by subscribers and revenues, NTT DoCoMo has reclaimed the top spot from Softbank Mobile for the first time in seven months. The subscribers gain by the telco is biggest gain of any of the country’s cellcos.
According to the company, the strong performance was the result of its data communication modems and discount billing programmes which helped entice customers to sign up to its services.
On the other hand, net 145,800 customers were added by the third largest player by subscribers, Softbank and 121,400 were gained by second-placed KDDI Corp. PHS operator Willcom lost 69,600 on the previous month, closing February with 4.171 million users.
Japan’s mobile customer base tops 97 million
The Japanese mobile operators added 478,900 new customers during April to reach a combined total of 97.2 million, according to figures from the Telecommunications Carrier Association (TCA). KDDI again led subscriber additions with 249,400 new customers, comprising 363,700 new customers for its au services and a drop of 114,300 Tu-Ka customers, in line with phase-out plans. Softbank Mobile overtook NTT DoCoMo in subscriber adds after winning 163,600 new customers in April, ending the month with 16.1 million subscribers. NTT DoCoMo’s subscriber base went up by 65,800 new customers to a total of 52.7 million.
Of NTT DoCoMo’s new subscriber additions in March, 901,600 choose the company’s WCDMA services, reaching a total WCDMA customer base of 36.4 million. Softbank Mobile ended April with 8.2 million WCDMA subscribers after adding 560,100 new customers in the month. KDDI’s au added 379,800 CDMA 1x customers, reaching a total of 27.1 million.
NTT DoCoMo added 48,600 i-mode customers, ending April with to 47.6 million. KDDI’s EZweb internet service rose by 262,800 to hit 23.8 million, and Softbank Mobile added 187,700 Yahoo! Keitai customers to reach 13.5 million.
The number of PHS customers rose by 40,000 to 5 million at the end of April. While NTT DoCoMo lost 22,600 PHS customers, ending the month with a total of 430,500. Recently the company announced it would terminate its PHS service on 7 January 2008. The country’s major PHS operator Willcom added 62,600 new customers to reach a total of 4.6 million.
