DoCoMo Profits Slip 15% to $1.55 Billion

Japan's NTT DoCoMo has reported a drop of 15.1% in its net profit as the company saw increased competition putting pressure on voice call tariffs. Net profit was ¥147.4 billion ($1.55 billion), down on the ¥173.5 billion a year ago. Revenues fell by 7.3% to ¥1.085 trillion yen.

As of June 30, 2009, the total number of cellular services subscriptions reached 54.86 million, posting an increase of 1.24 million compared to the number as of June 30, 2008, of which 3G subscriptions accounted for 91.6% or 50.25 million.

Total capital expenditures for the three months ended June 30, 2009 were ¥153.1 billion (down 6.5% compared to the same period of the prior year).

DoCoMo maintained its forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2010, which calls for revenues of ¥4.38 trillion and an operating profit of ¥830 billion.

The company also confirmed that it will launch its first LTE based services from late next year. The service is expected to be initially available via USB modems, with handsets not expected until 2011. Coverage will be expanded to 50% of the population by 2014.

Posted to the site on 30th July 2009