Cell phone operators stage turf battle in Japan

With the cell phone number portability system to be introduced next week in Japan, three major mobile phone operators have staged intense battles to retain and win more market share.

Under the portability system, cell phone users can use the same phone number even after switching to another service provider. The system is expected to bring some changes to the landscape of Japan 's 94 million-user handset market to a certain degree.

To remain as the market leader, NTT DoCoMo is planning to launch a new series of handsets later next month, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Thursday.

All 11 handsets in the series are equipped with advanced music playing functions. Five will have the capacity to download songs from Napster, a service allowing users to listen to as much music as they want for a set fee.

Besides, three phones can receive the One-Seg broadcasts, a terrestrial digital broadcasting service that enables TV programs to be played on mobile phones and other portable devices.

Second-ranking KDDI Corp. is to capitalize its strengthen in popular music services. More than 70 million tunes have been purchased since KDDI started a downloading service in November 2004.

The operator is trying to expand the music functions on its handsets. Most of the 12 handsets the company introduced at the end of August are equipped with the music instrument maker Yamaha Corp.'s chip that improves the audio of digitally compressed songs, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on Thursday.

Softbank Mobile, which is behind the two in terms of market share, is to release 15 new models for the autumn and winter sales season. Softbank Corp., which acquired Vodafone's Japanese arm in April, changed the company name to Softbank Mobile and the brand name to Softbank on Oct. 1.

According to the Asahi, to change the image that the provider has a limited investment in the network, Softbank Mobile is spending more than 400 billion yen (about 3.39 billion U.S. dollars) to double the number of base stations to 46,000 by March, from about 23,000 in June.

Softbank Mobile will also leverage the Internet resources of Yahoo Japan Corp., a Softbank affiliate. Most of the 13 handsets the provider launched for the autumn and winter will link, with a push of a dedicated button, to Yahoo's mobile portal site, which offers a wide range of information for free.

Statistics from Japan's Telecommunications Carriers Association show that, by the end of September, the nation has a total of 93. 81 million subscribers, of which NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Soft Mobile account for a share of 55.5 percent, 28.1 percent and 16.3 percent respectively.

Besides launching new models of handsets and new functions, the major providers are also working on dishing out discount programs for long-term subscribers, focusing on company subscribers, and airing commercials featuring popular actors and athletes, to enhance its competitiveness.

Some 25 countries and territories around the world including Britain, Germany, France and the United States now use a similar cell phone number portability system. The introductions of the system to those countries have triggered the switch of subscribers to other service providers of different degrees.

However, analysts did not expect a large number of switch cases immediately after the system is launched on Oct. 24 in Japan, as the users cannot keep their mobile phone e-mail addresses even though the phone numbers remain unchanged. Statistics indicate that many cellphone users in Japan send e-mail messages more often than they make phone calls.

Source: Xinhua