Telecommunications

July 2006

KDDI Ranked Tops In June Mobile Phone/PHS Contract Net Gain
KDDI Corp. held the No. 1 spot in June for the second month in a row in terms of net gain in mobile phone/PHS (personal handyphone system) contracts, according to statistics released by the Telecommunications Carriers Association on Friday. KDDI's net gain, which is derived by subtracting the number of canceled contracts from new contracts, stood at 156,000. NTT DoCoMo Inc. posted a June net gain of 141,000 contracts, while Vodafone KK gained 16,600 contracts. For the first half of 2006, however, DoCoMo, which held the monthly lead from January through April, was ranked No. 1, having regained the half-year lead for the first time in two half-year periods. DoCoMo reported a half-year net gain of 1,306,500 contracts. This was up roughly 370,000 contracts from the net gain for the June-December period of 2005. The company achieved the increase in part due to the revamping of its rate plan in the fall of 2005 and the introduction of a number of new 3G (third-generation) mobile phones. KDDI was in second place for the half-year period, with a net gain of 1,261,500 contracts. Vodafone's net gain for the half-year period was 123,500 contracts. PHS giant Willcom Inc. had a net gain of 425,300 contracts for the half-year period. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, July 8, 2006)

Japan Moves To 2nd Place In World Ranking On Access To Telecom Tech
Japan has advanced to second place in a global "digital opportunities" survey ranking countries in terms of access to and use of information and communications technologies. The study was released Wednesday by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). South Korea placed first among the 180 countries listed in the ranking, which was calculated based on 11 indicators, such as the percentage of Internet users to the total population. Japan moved up from the No. 3 spot it occupied in a similar survey covering 40 major countries released in November last year by the United Nations agency. Despite the improvement, Japan is still seen as greatly trailing South Korea in some key areas. For example, while 14.9% of all Japanese have broadband Internet connections, 24.9% of South Koreans subscribe to the high-speed service. Japan also lags its neighbor in the ratio of both Net users and subscribers to cellular telephony services. Meanwhile, Japan retained the top spot in terms of affordable broadband services. (The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, July 6, 2006)