KDDI’s May Net Subscription Gain Falls Nearly 50 Percent on Year

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Jun. 6–TOKYO — The net gain in subscribers to KDDI Corp.’s mobile phone service in May fell nearly 50 percent from the year before, an industry body said Friday.

KDDI posted a net gain of 72,400 subscription contracts for its “au” brand cell phone service in the reporting month, down 47.7 percent from 138,500 contracts in May last year, the Telecommunications Carriers Association said.

The figure is calculated by subtracting the number of contract cancellations from the number of newly concluded contracts.

Industry watchers said the decline is attributable to the deteriorating image of au brand cell phones after users reported a series of accidents in which battery packs in KDDI’s W42K cell phone model emitted smoke and blew up due to short-circuits.

The decline is also due to au fee plans which appear complicated compared with other mobile phone carriers, the industry watchers said.

In contrast, Softbank Mobile Corp. posted the largest net gain in the reporting month for the 13th straight month due to the popularity of its “White Plan” with a low-priced basic monthly fee, the association said.

Softbank Mobile logged a net gain of 173,700 subscription contracts, including those for Disney Mobile services launched in March by Walt Disney Co. Japan, the Japanese unit of U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney Co., using Softbank Mobile’s nationwide network.

Industry leader NTT DoCoMo Inc. was in third place with a net gain of 60,900, while eMobile Ltd. was fourth with a net gain of 51,500.

Willcom Inc., which provides mobile services using a personal handy-phone system, posted its first net gain in two months with 11,200 contracts. PHS provides a stripped-down cellular service with relatively low charges.

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