25% Of Vodafone Japan Customers Looking To Switch -Nikkei

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Nearly a quarter of Vodafone K.K.'s customers are considering switching to another cellular phone service provider once number portability service is introduced Oct. 24, an online survey by the Nikkei Industrial Daily shows.

The survey found that 17.1% of the respondents intend to change their cellular phone companies once number portability service is available, down 6.1 percentage points from a survey in June.

This drop likely occurred because more people have come to learn about the caveats and costs of switching providers.

Among the respondents who were using Vodafone's cellular phone service, 24.7% were considering moving to another company, followed by 18.7% for NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s (9437.TO) customers, and 8.1% for users of KDDI Corp.'s (9433.TO) au cellphone service.

When those who were considering changing providers were asked to name their preferred company, KDDI came on top at 61.1%, with Vodafone and DoCoMo following at 17.6% and 13.5%, respectively.

The number portability service will enable customers to transfer their phone numbers to accounts opened with different service providers.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 3rd September 2006