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Japan’s Mobile Market At-glance: Summary of carrier market share, 3G
protocols and Mobile IP.
Trends of the Wireless
Telecommunication Market in Japan
According to the Telecommunications Carriers Association (“TCA”) in Japan, mobile phone subscribers, not including PHS
(Personal Handy-phone System), reached 95,762,300 as of February 2007. This number equals approximately 75% of the entire
population (127,767,994) of Japan. On the other hand, according to the CTIA and the US Census Bureau, 74% (233,725,955 of
301,424,514) of the entire U.S. population owns a mobile phone; this percentage rate is almost identical to the penetration
rate of cell phones in Japan. The following data provides an overall summary of Japan’s wireless market over the past two
years.
Market Shares of
Carriers
DoCoMo currently dominates 54.6% of the mobile market followed by 28.9% for KDDI and 16.5% for Softbank. KDDI has gained
market share over the past two years whereas the other two carriers have shown a decline. In terms of the number of
subscribers, KDDI has the most aggressive growth rate of 10.8% when compared with 3.3% growth for DoCoMo and 4.2% growth for
Softbank.
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Market Shares by
Protocol
W-CDMA (3G) has grown to 42.0% in February 2007 from 27.3% in 2006 and the annual growth rate is 66.0% in terms of number of
subscribers. Although CDMA2000 (3G) by KDDI au has also grown by 22.8% in terms of subscribers, the market share has declined
due to more rapid growth of W-CDMA (3G) by DoCoMo and Softbank. On the other hand, PDC (2G) market share has sharply declined
to 29.3% in February 2007 from 48.4% in 2006. In similar fashion, odmaOne (2.5G) has declined from 1.0% to 0.6%
respectively.
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3G Protocols by
Carriers
When comparing 3G protocols (W-CDMA and CDMA2000) by carrier, we can see that DoCoMo’s market share jumped from to 48.0% in
February 2006 to 50.8% in February 2007, and Softbank’s share grew from 6.0% to 10.5% in the same time period. In contrast,
KDDI’s au market share declined from 46.1% in 2006 down to 38.7% in 2007. In terms of the number of subscribers gained,
Softbank’s annual growth was 157.6% as opposed to 54.6% for DoCoMo and 22.6% for KDDI au. Since KDDI started 2.5g and 3G
protocols earlier than DoCoMo and Softbank, these statistics show that more 2G subscribers of DoCoMo and Softbank have
switched to 3G causing the entire 3G market share allocation to shift.
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IP Services and
Carriers
Previous statistics confirm that KDDI au lost 3G market share because of rapid gains by DoCoMo and Softbank. However, KDDI
still has a strong market position in IP services. KDDI gained market share in this segment by capturing 27.6% in February
2007 when compared with 25.5% in 2006. The other two carriers lost market share in this segment from 2006. In terms of number
of subscribers, EZWeb operated by KDDI au has grown 14.3% from 2006 as compared with 3.0% for i-Mode by DoCoMo and 2.3% of
Yahoo! Keitai by Softbank. These statistics imply that the growth of DoCoMo’s and Softbank’s 3G from 2G may be derived from
certain financial benefits or possibly for other reasons, such as the impact of promotional campaigns or the appeal of new
mobile phones that do not directly leverage the speed and convenience of IP-based 3G communication.
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