NTT DoCoMo has surpassed KDDI in net mobile phone subscriber growth in Japan in fiscal year 2005-06 for the first time in three years. The net increase for NTT DoCoMo was 2.31 million, just marginally higher than KDDI’s 2.3 million for the year ended March 31, 2006. NTT DoCoMo’s growth was driven by the popularity of handsets featuring electronic money and credit card functions to achieve the largest net mobile phone subscriber growth among the three players in the Japanese mobile market.
Vodafone K.K., the third player in the Japanese market, saw its net subscriber growth limited to 169,200 during the year on account of a delay in its introduction of 3G mobile phones for high speed data communications.
