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DoCoMo Overtaken by Smaller Rival in Growth Stakes ...

(08 Oct 2009, BWCS Staff)

The newest and smallest mobile operator in Japan, Emobile, last month added more new customers than its giant rival NTT DoCoMo. The latest figures from the country's Telecommunications Carrier Association show that the dominant carrier could only manage to increase its subscriber base by 66,000 net additions; this was compared to net additions of 112,900 in August. Meanwhile, Emobile ended September with 1.89 million customers up a healthy 88,200 on the month. However, the company remains dwarfed by DoCoMo's total customer base of 55.19 million subscribers.

Overall, Japan had 109.63 million mobile users by the 30th September, with the combined number of new customers standing at 364,500 for the month. Second ranked mobile operator KDDI managed to boost its user base by 102,300 new customers in September, bringing its total to 31.23 million.

Emobile is an MVNO operating on DoCoMo's network. It was set up in early 2008 by KDDI founder, Sachio Semmoto, and launched in March of that year. Uniquely, it features no monthly subscription charges and was the first new entrant to the already saturated Japanese mobile market for many years. Competition in the Japanese mobile market has intensified since its launch and the recent figures show that it is making an impact.

The MVNO, which started providing wireless Web access in 2007, said it is building a nationwide network that should be ready for use by October 2010, when its roaming agreement with DoCoMo expires.



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