Half of Japan's mobile subs are 3G users
07 March 2006
The number of 3G users in Japan reached 45.91m at the end of February, accounting for 50.58 per cent of the country's total mobile phone subscriber base, according to statistics from Japan's Telecommunication Carriers Association today.
With all eyes on Vodafone Japan at the moment, watchers will be pleased to see that the country's smallest operator has continued to stem the flow of subscribers away from its services.
However, Vodafone only added 12,200 customers during the month, following a loss of 183,000 2G PDC subscribers and a gain of 195,200 WCDMA 3G users, leaving Vodafone with 15.15m customers in total at the end of February.
Leading carrier NTT DoCoMo took the lead in terms of net additions for February, adding a total of 162,300 subscribers, but only just ahead of second placed KDDI, which added a total of 160,300.
DoCoMo lost 666,100 2G PDC users, but gained 828,400 WCDMA 3G customers during February, while KDDI lost 149,000 2G users and gained 309,300 1x 3G customers.
As of the end of February DoCoMo maintained its lead position with 50.66m customers, while KDDI au trailed with 22m users.
But leadership in the 3G space in Japan is more closely contested with DoCoMo just edging ahead with 22m FOMA WCDMA customers, while KDDI's 1x au service reported 21.15m users as of the end of February.
Vodafone trails by some considerable margin, recording just 2.74m WCDMA 3G subscribers as of the end of February.
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