Last updated: 17 Feb 2010 Update History
Report Status: Archived
Report Pages: 160
Analyst: Stephen McNamara
Publication Overview
· Market and industry analyses, trends and developments;
· Broadband and mobile subscriber forecasts up to 2020;
· Facts, figures and statistics;
· Industry and regulatory issues;
· Infrastructure;
· Major players, revenues, subscribers, ARPU;
· Internet, VoIP, IPTV;
· Mobile voice and data markets;
· Broadband (FttH, DSL, cable TV, wireless);
· Convergence and digital media.
Researcher:- Lisa Hulme-Jones
Current publication date:- February 2010 (16th Edition)
Next publication date:- February 2011
Executive Summary
The affordability of mobile services, and customers looking to cut down outgoings, even though
Entering 2010,
The telecommunications regulatory authorities in
Although
· The number of broadband lines in
· Entering 2010, the number of fixed subscribers had declined even further to 41 million (less than 35% penetration), and that of mobile subscribers surpassed 110 million (more than 85% penetration). The trend highlights the severe pressure on NTT, faced with declining fixed-line subscribers and high levels of competition eating away at their market dominance;
· New mobile operator eMobile continued its network expansion and going into 2010 had reached over 1.2 million subscribers which the operator plans to increase to 2.5 million by mid-2010. The company launched the country’s first commercial HSPA+ network across six cities in 2009, offering download speeds of 21.6Mb/s;
· The strong uptake of 3G continued, with over 105 million subscribers going into 2010, representing 95% of all mobile subscribers. DoCoMo is one of the strongest drivers of the Long-term evolution standard, and plans to launch commercial operations in late 2010;
· The local market’s other significant growth area coming into 2010 was in the IP-based telephony reaching over 20 million subscribers. Here Softbank is a major player, with 21% of the total VoIP subscriber base. The various divisions of NTT, as well as KDDI, are also playing a big role in this rapidly expanding market segment, with NTT showing considerable increases to over 50% of market share;
· Popular Value-Added Service continued to be i-mode for Internet access via mobile phones, music downloads facilitated by linkage between the content providers and the operators, and Osaifu-Keitai which is a mobile wallet allowing subscribers to pay for train tickets and the like with their mobile phones.
· Softbank Telecom conceded to become a reseller of NTT’s Hikari branded services on a national scale. From July 2009, the operator has been selling Hikari services after announcing that it could not keep up with payment of higher leasing fees;
· NTT Com acquired Pacific Crossing, which operates the Pacific Crossing-1 trans-Pacific network, in May 2009. The 21,000km long cable has a capacity for speeds of 1Tb/s, for which NTT paid an estimated ¥10 billion (US$104 million), giving it a new trans-Pacific fibre link between Japan and the US;
· NTT launched the TPE submarine cable network, which runs between Southeast Asia and the
· UQ Communications, in which KDDI is the largest shareholder, starting commercial operations in July 2009 providing high-speed mobile data communications through its UQ WiMAX service. By early 2010, coverage is expected to include all 18 government-designated major cities nationwide.
Internet, broadband, IP telephony and telecoms statistics for
Sector |
2007 |
2009 |
Internet |
|
|
Internet users (million) |
87.5 |
94.0 |
Penetration rate |
68.5% |
74.0 |
Broadband subscribers |
|
|
DSL (million) |
13.1 |
10.8 |
FttH (million) |
11.3 |
15.9 |
Cable Internet (million) |
3.8 |
4.2 |
Total (million) |
28.3 |
30.9 |
IP Telephony |
|
|
IP telephone users |
14.5 |
20.5 |
Mobile wireless subscribers |
87.2 |
92.3 |
Subscribers to Telecoms Services |
|
|
Subscriber telephones (million) |
44.0 |
39.5 |
|
100.5 |
111.0 |
3G mobile phones (million) |
83.3 |
105.0 |
(Source: BuddeComm based on Softbank, MIC, TCA)
For those needing high level strategic analysis and objective analysis on
· The government’s adoption of its ‘New IT Reform Strategy’ to promote the installation of broadband, in order to eliminate zero-broadband areas by 2010. Together with the ‘Next-Generation Broadband Strategy 2010’ this is intended to advance the need for nationwide broadband installations;
· The historic election win by Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in mid-2009 which broke a deadlock in
· Japan’s stimulus package revealed in 2009, putting emphasis on deploying ICT infrastructure and a ‘networked recovery’, ie the notion that ICT infrastructure and its use is a tool to revive the economy through new innovative services and offering solutions to pressing social challenges;
· NTT DoCoMo bringing forward the date for its 2G network shutdown from 2012 to 2011. The overwhelming majority of its subscribers have already migrated to the FOMA 3G platform;
· Japan’s four main mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI (au), Softbank Mobile and eMobile – planning to invest up to ¥1 trillion (US$10 billion) into so-called ‘3.9G’ mobile services. From 2010 a number of domestic carriers intend to utilise their existing 3G infrastructure, on which the providers spent ¥ 5 trillion;
· By mid-2009, mobile handset makers Panasonic and Sharp, facing bleak prospects at home and setting their sights on the vast overseas market. As well as having little room to grow in Japan, the market for handsets has been altered radically in the past 18 months by a shift in
· NTT beating its own target for IPTV subscriber growth to its Hikari TV and FLET’S TV video services over fibre-optic access reaching 630,000 subscribers by early 2009, and planning for nearly 1.5 million customers by early 2010. With mobile video services such as ‘BeeTV’ also showing growth, the company has high hopes for video services going forward;
· NTT taking the plunge towards cloud-based services with its virtual hosting and online storage offerings in
· In November 2009 the Google-invested Unity trans-Pacific cable landing in
Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.
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