TOKYO—NTT DoCoMo, the largest mobile carrier in Japan, announced the average revenue per user (ARPU) of FOMA, DoCoMo’s new third-generation (3G) service, was 10,400 yen (US$78) during the three months from October to December. The total ARPU for DoCoMo’s 39.6 million mobile-phone users for the same period was 8,540 yen (US$64).
DoCoMo launched the FOMA service, at least partially, to push up its declining ARPU. Because the Japanese mobile market is becoming saturated, ARPUs have been declining. NTT DoCoMo is expecting the total ARPU to drop to 8,500 yen (US$63.60) for the fiscal year (FY) 2001 ending at end-March 2002 from 8,650 yen (US$65) in FY 2000.
DoCoMo also announced that the number of users of FOMA as of the end of December was merely 27,000. DoCoMo has maintained its initial projection for FOMA users for the end of FY 2001 to be 150,000, which now seems unrealistic.
