Some mobile phone statistics for everyone to ponder. NTT Docomo continues to dominate the 2.5G arena and has made up some ground on au KDDI on the back of strong 3G sales. Vodafone continues to play a meaningless role in the overall scheme of things. The launch of Tu-ka's simple phone, the "Tu-ka S", gives them their first growth in subscriber numbers for a couple of months.

The Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) has announced subscriber numbers for mobile phone and PHS networks for the end of November 2004. Tu-ka group recorded a net increase in subscribers for the first time since April 2004 (approx. 2 years).

Mobile phone subscriber numbers increased by 135,000 for NTT DoCoMo, 167,100 for au, 9,900 for Vodafone and 1,200 for Tu-ka. au had the largest monthly share for the first time in two months. Tu-ka began sales of its simplified, talk-only "Tu-ka S" [1] in November and the increase in subscriber numbers was probably due to the introduction of this handset. Contracts for communication modules increased by 12,300 for DoCoMo and 13,500 for au.

For 3G mobile phones, net increases in subscriber numbers were 504,800 for FOMA (DoCoMo), 294,800 for CDMA2000 1x (au) and 22,500 for Vodafone Global Standard (Vodafone). In terms of total subscriber numbers, FOMA has 7,569,100, au CDMA2000 1x has 16,449,900 and VGS has 296,900.

The number of Internet service users increased by 175,100 for i-mode (DoCoMo) and 191,400 for EZweb (au) but decreased by 800 for Vodafone Live!

Subscribers to PHS services increased by 8,600 for DDI Pocket but decreased by 24,000 and 12,400 for NTT DoCoMo and Astel respectively.

Mobile phones: Subscriber numbers and totals by carrier

3G: Subscriber numbers and totals by carrier

Mobile phone: Internet service contracts

PHS: Subscriber numbers and totals by carrier

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/21741.html [2]

News release (English):
http://www.tca.or.jp/eng/database/daisu/yymm/0411matu.html [3]