Despite a decentish 3Q. It looks as if Vodafone K.K.’s first good subsciber uptake month in a while – last December – has been too little and too late to prevent Japan’s number 3 carrier from posting a wider full-year loss for the year to March 31, 2004. Today, the carrier announced that its 3Q consolidated operating revenues increased from 385 billion yen for the three months to September to 1.28 trillion yen for the quarter to December 30, 2003.
Well, the cat is really among the pigeons now as former fixed line monopoly Big Brother NTT just announced plans to launch a challenge to the FeliCa smart-card standard promoted by DoCoMo and Sony. NTT said it will support FeliCa, a major boost to the FeliCa standard. But in a classic case of Indian giving NTT has decided to also develop a smart card supporting the government’s terminally unpopular and constantly personal-data -leaking national registry network called “Juki Net.”
Japan’s mobile phone industry expects to ring up a banner year for sales of 3G phones in 2004 and wireless operators around the world will be watching closely as they prepare for similar roll-outs. “(Japan) was always held out as the example that encouraged investors, operators, equipment vendors and so forth to pursue this vision,” said James Carrabino, global head of telecoms, media and technology for ABN AMRO. “2004 is a benchmark year for information flow on service (adoption), where the product differentiation is and how discerning the customer base is.”
KDDI has taken more than 50 percent of new subscribers for the third month in a row, and there is good news at last for Vodafone, for the first time since June the struggling carrier actually broke the 100,000 barrier. DoCoMo however ended the year down in Japanese carriers unrelenting battle to get more cellies in pockets and handbags. The latest figures out show that KDDI took a huge 289,500 subscribers, more than double that of DoCoMo’s 114,600.
The redoubtable reporters at Japan’s leading business daily, the Nikkei, have just come out with a poll showing that 1,000 Japanese teenagers surveyed recently moaned that their mobile phone bills are eating up to half their pocket money. In fact, a lot of them apparently said they wanted to reduce their spending on mobiles so they could do other productive (consumptive) pursuits such as buying fashion or going to rock concerts (fine, as long as it’s Motorhead). Although this sounds like a silly season story (baring in mind that few things are sillier than Christmas in Japan) and the poll didn’t give any real useful demographics (where, when, ages, etc.) it sounds about right to us!
A quarter of all mobile-phone users in Japan are expected to switch to a 3G service by March 2005. Analysts say DoCoMo, Japan’s largest wireless carrier, could add a million customers a month in 2004, once improved phones are released. Meanwhile, DoCoMo’s rivals, KDDI and Vodafone KK, are also expanding, leading executives to predict that 2004 will be the year of 3G in Japan. “If 3G is validated here, a lot of carriers and suppliers will point to Japan as a success,” said Mark Berman, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo. “This could touch off a 3G rally” worldwide.
