This time around, we look at the number of new subscribers for cellular phones and Personal Handyphone Systems (PHS) for the month of December, 2003.

Don't forget to look at the original StatsMania if you haven't already!

The Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) presented the number of new members for both cellular phones and PHS for month-end December 2003.

For new cellular users, au netted 289,600 new users, which is the highest gain in the 3-month period. NTT DoCoMo saw 114,600 users - nearly double the previous month, while Vodafone had 114,200 new users - the first time the 100,000 new users half a year ago, in June. Also, Tuka lost 11,800 users. The number of new subscribers in December expanded to about 170,000 more than the previous month. Furthermore, the count of cellular phone users at the end of 2003 is 79,787,200. It was presented that this is an increase of 6,273,100 users over the last year's value, 73,514,100 at the end of December 2002.

For 3G cellular phones, DoCoMo's FOMA got 255,100 new users (total 1,881,000), au's CDMA2000 1x saw 593,700 new users (total 11,764,100), and Vodafone's VGS (Vodafone Global Standard) had 18,500 new users (total 111,700). VGS, which began in December and support "Vodafone Live!" began with the "V801SA" and other fundamental devlopements. It experienced more than 4 times the number of new users from the previous month.

Internet users expanded by 190,900 for i-mode, 303,900 for EZweb, and 97,600 for Vodafone Live.

For PHS service, DDI Pocket lost 9,300 members, DoCoMo 12,400 users, and Astel lost 10,400 users. It does not appear that the declining trend will change.

Cellular Phones: By each group for new members and total

Group	Net Increase	Total
NTT DoCoMo	114,600	45,365,900
au	289,600	15,977,300
Tuka	-11,800	3,670,000
Vodafone	114,200	14,774,000
Total	506,500	79,787,200

3G Cellular Phones: By each group for new members and total

Group	Net Increase	Total
NTT DoCoMo	255,100	1,881,000
au	593,700	11,764,100
Vodafone	18,500	111,700
Total	867,300	14,762,100

Cellular Phones: Internet Connection Service Agreement count

Group	Net Increase	Total
i-Mode	190,900	40,334,900
EZweb	303,900	14,699,700
Vodafone Live!	97,600	12,771,200
Total	592,400	67,805,800

PHS: By each group for new members and total

Group	Net Increase	Total
DDI Pocket	-9,300	2,914,000
NTT DoCoMo	-12,400	1,627,100
Astel	-10,400	683,200
Total	-32,100	5,224,300

Original Article:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/17124.html

News Release (Japanese):
http://www.tca.or.jp/japan/database/daisu/yymm/0312matu.html

News Release (English):
http://www.tca.or.jp/eng/database/daisu/yymm/0312matu.html