DoCoMo Suffers its First Ever Monthly Loss of Customers

December 11, 2006 - source: BWCS

For the first time in living memory, Japanese mobile giant, DoCoMo, actually lost subscribers last month. Admittedly the net numbers deserting the phone company were relatively small - 17,500 more customers cancelled than signed new contracts in November, but the worry for DoCoMo is that this may be the first of many times that it has to face a monthly decrease.

The operator blamed the recent introduction of mobile number portability for its drop in popularity. Meanwhile, as if to rub salt into the wounds of DoCoMo, both of its chief rivals - Softbank Mobile and KDDI - reported healthy boosts to their overall subscriber numbers. Softbank managed to add 68,700 net new customers, while KDDI put on an impressive 324,900 additional users.

However, Softbank Mobile, despite posting an overall increase in customer numbers - thanks largely to its success in the corporate sphere - lost out in terms of net increases in the consumer sector last month.

Overall, very few Japanese mobile customers have seized the opportunity to switch carriers. In fact according to reports in the national press, only 680,000 subscribers changed to a new operator, which equates to a mere 0.7% of the total national mobile customer base of 94 million.