JiJi Press is reporting that Japan mobile market leader DoCoMo slipped to third place in annual mobile phone subscriber growth, for the first time, in 2007 based on TCA data released Thursday. Industry-wide subscribers grew 5.9 pct year-on-year with DoCoMo still holding a commanding lead in market share of 52.9 pct, followed by KDDI with 29.4 pct and Softbank with 17.5 pct.
The Communications Ministry has decided to grant licenses for next-generation wireless broadband service to Willcom Inc. and a group led by KDDI Corp. according to the Nikkei. The ministry’s decision is based on an examination of about 120 criteria, including business plans and technologies. KDDI had started development of WiMax technology ahead of others in 2003, and Willcom has a track record for bringing PHS (personal handyphone system), a technology created in Japan, to China.
Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ) and NTT DoCoMo today announced a preliminary agreement under which IIJ will become the first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) to use DoCoMo’s 3G FOMA network to offer corporate data communications services supported by DoCoMo’s HSDPA technology. Details of actual operations are currently under discussion.
The Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) is reporting that Softbank Mobile won the monthly net-subscriber addition war again for the month of November, marking the the seven consecutive victory for the former Vodafone operator! The company gained a total growth of 191,600 subscribers, or nearly double the combined results of KDDI, which added a net 65,400 subscribers, and DoCoMo with 48,200 net additions. DoCoMo is still, by far, the market leader with 53 million customers, followed by KDDI with almost 30 million and Softbank Mobile now at 17.4 million.
KDDI raised 80 billion yen ($728 million) in its first bond sale in two years, according to this article on Bloomberg. The company sold 20 billion yen of 1.5 percent seven-year bonds to yield 38 basis points more than Japanese government securities, Daiwa SMBC and Mizuho Securities handled the sale.
Alcatel-Lucent announced it has been selected by Softbank Mobile to supply a mobile backhaul solution to help the operator meet rapidly increasing subscriber demand for 3G services on Softbank’s mobile network. The solution includes Alcatel-Lucent’s 7670 Routing Switch Platform and the 5620 Network Management platform.
