TOKYO-The number of Japanese new mobile subscribers in August was merely 385,300, a significant drop from July’s 528,300, according to a survey compiled by the Telecommunications Carriers Association. Carriers tended to shrink their sales in August, just after the Japanese typical bonus season. (In Japan, companies traditionally pay semi-annual bonuses in June and December.)
New subscribers for NTT DoCoMo and J-Phone shrank; KDDI increased its number of new subscribers. NTT DoCoMo saw drastically decreased new subscribers from 299,000 in July to 161,000 in August. Market watchers said NTT DoCoMo’s cost-reduction strategy suppressed its competitiveness in the market, which eventually impacted the number of new subscribers. J-Phone, a Vodafone Group company, also saw reduced new subscribers from 125,100 in July to 106,200 in August, although its unique picture phone service called “sha-mail” is still popular.
Au, a brand of KDDI, on the other hand, expanded its new subscribers from 113,900 in July to 125,200 in August. KDDI successfully won new subscribers riding on the popularity of the firm’s 1x service.
As a result, the total subscriber number for NTT DoCoMo as of 31 August was 41.92 million, au was 12.93 million and J-Phone was 12.90 million. The total mobile-phone user count was up 0.5 percent in August to 71.62 million.
