TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- KDDI Corp. (9433.TO) said Thursday the number of subscribers to its "au" mobile phone service has topped 20 million for the first time, underscoring its price and service competitiveness in attracting customers for third-generation services.
The second-largest Japanese telecommunications company still lags behind rival NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437.TO) in terms of overall subscribers. DoCoMo had a total of 49.253 million subscribers at the end of May.
However, KDDI has been more successful than DoCoMo in shifting customers to, and grabbing new subscribers for, its 3G services. KDDI had about 18.495 million 3G subscribers in May, while DoCoMo had about 12.883 million subscribers.
KDDI's au service was struggling until early 2002. The turning point came in April of that year when the company started offering 3G services. Since then, KDDI has often enjoyed the biggest net subscriber increases in monthly surveys among Japan's mobile phone service operators.
More than 92% of au customers now use 3G services, a company spokesman noted.
Vodafone K.K. (9434.TO), the Japanese unit of Vodafone Group Plc. (VOD) of the U.K., has lost subscribers on a net basis for the fifth straight month through May.
-By Natsuo Nishio, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929;natsuo.nishio@dowjones.com
-Edited by Chris Gallagher
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 9th June 2005
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/13102.php