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KDDI tops 2m next-generation users
August 27, 2002
KDDI said on Monday it had signed up 2m users to its 3G mobile
phone service at the end of last week, after just 5 months on the
market.
KDDI also said its 3G service was on track to have 7m subscribers
by the end of next March, a number that represents more than 40
per cent of KDDI's current mobile subscriber-base, which stood at
16.7m at the end of July.
The progress KDDI has made in signing up 3G users, contrasts sharply
with the disappointing outlook for 3G in Europe, where a growing
number of operators are either abandoning, postponing or scaling
back their 3G plans.
In Japan, NTT DoCoMo, which was 6 months ahead of KDDI in launching
its 3G service, had only 127,000 3G users at the end of July.
The contrasting experiences reflect the different strategies of
European operators and DoCoMo, who chose to use a technology known
as W-CDMA for their 3G services, and KDDI and Korean operators who
opted for CDMA2000 1X.
KDDI's standard is an advanced version of its existing 2.5G CDMAOne
standard and is backwards compatible, allowing users with 3G handsets
to use the fast 3G service where it is available and a somewhat
slower, but more widespread service, where 3G is not. This has also
enabled KDDI to keep 3G handset costs fairly close to 2.5G levels.
KDDI has also taken a different approach to promoting 3G usage.
While DoCoMo marketed the video phone - which allows users to see
each other as they talk on the phone - as a major benefit of 3G,
KDDI has focused its services on GPS navigation, video downloading
and camera-phone applications.
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3G Motorola A920
