Vodafone Hits Back in Japan

July 7, 2005 - source: BWCS

Struggling Japanese mobile operator Vodafone KK has today reported its first net monthly gain in subscribers since December 2004. The Japanese unit of the UK-based mobile giant Vodafone put the improvement down to a series of marketing promotions, a new range of mobile handsets and recently introduced flat-rate pricing for some services.

As usual the lion's share of new customers went to NTT DoCoMo, which reported strong customer growth for its high-speed third-generation service. The NTT mobile wing added a total of 827,500 3G customers in June, although overall it had only 176,500 new subscribers. DoCoMo's major rival, KDDI's au Group, managed to add 228,700 3G customers but only 160,200 new customers overall in June. The additions helped au squeeze past the 20 million subscriber mark for the first time.

While Vodafone KK's addition of only 5,300 net new customers seems tiny in comparison (it finished the month with 14.97 million subscribers), company top brass were relieved that it seemed at least to reverse recent trends. In May 2005 Vodafone KK lost some 39,000 subscribers. All the figures came from the Japanese Telecommunications Carriers Association.

Last month Vodafone KK announced major new investment initiative in Japan and promised to plough £1.32 billion into its 3G network and build a further 5,400 base stations.