TOKYO-KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest mobile operator, gained more than double the number of new users that its competitors added during December. KDDI added 289,600 new subscribers during the month, DoCoMo added 114,600 new subscribers during December, and Vodafone added 114,200, according to figures from Japan’s Telecommunications Carriers Association.
KDDI also added more than double the number of third-generation subscribers than its rivals during the month. KDDI signed 593,700 new 1x subscribers, while DoCoMo added 255,100 W-CDMA users and Vodafone added just 18,500 W-CDMA customers. All the operators lost customers on their older-generation technology networks, PDC and cdmaOne.
In addition, KDDI added the most mobile Internet subscribers with 303,900 new EZ Web users. DoCoMo added 190,900 i-mode customers, and Vodafone added 97,600 Vodafone Live! users.
In overall totals, however, DoCoMo is still the dominant player, with 45.4 million total subscribers, followed by nearly 16 million total KDDI subscribers and 14.8 million Vodafone users.
