TOKYO (02/08/2000) - Japan had just under 55 million mobile phone users at the end of January, according to data released today by the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA).
The detailed report, which is compiled from data provided by the carriers, shows Japan added a net total of 636,600 subscriber accounts in January to take the total number to 54.8 million mobile telephone users.
The majority of the users, some 49.1 million subscribers, used conventional cellular telephone services. The remainder, 5.7 million users, were subscribers to PHS (personal handyphone system) services -- a lower powered and cheaper mobile telephone service used in Japan.
NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., the mobile powerhouse of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) group, continued to expand its market share, albeit only slightly. It ended the month with 28.1 million subscribers or 57.1 percent of the entire cellular user base. At the end of December it had a 57.0 percent share.
The country's second-largest operator, DDI Cellular Group, ended the month with 6.1 million subscribers and recorded a net loss of 6,400 subscribers for the month -- the result of heavy competition in the Kansai region, which includes Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, where it lost 19,000 subscribers in January. The figure was made all the more worse by a combined 118,600 subscriber gain in the region recorded by its competitors.
Nippon Ido Tsushin saw subscriber levels rise to 3.8 million, while Tu-Ka Cellular ended the month with 3.3 million subscribers. DDI Corp., parent of DDI Cellular, recently purchased the Tu-Ka Cellular companies and in December announced plans to merge with Nippon Ido Tsushin later this year. The latest figures give these three companies a combined 13.3 million users -- approximately half the user base of NTT.
The J-Phone Group had 7.8 million users at the end of the month, up 108,000 on the month.
In the PHS market, DDI Pocket added 25,000 users to 3.3 million, NTT DoCoMo added 9,000 users to 1.4 million and Astel Group added 2,000 users to 963,800 subscribers. This resulted in the PHS sector recording a subscriber gain of 36,000 in the month -- the first time for several months in which it has seen total subscriber numbers rise.