14 DAY TRIAL // NTT DoCoMo reported a 25% fall in profits registered in the last year up to March, which translates into almost 500 billion yen. It is incredible news to see such a drop in profits, as DoCoMo stands for the leading mobile company in Japan.
The reasons for the falling profits were explained by the company leaders to be a result of introducing in Octomber the "number portability" in all Japan. This means that mobile phone users can change their cellular carriers without having to change their phone numbers too.
As a result of this, more than 600,000 DoCoMo subscribers decided to move to another company, which reflected in the dropping profits. "The reason is clear. Our customers left us either over the weakness of the 3G network or the expensive fees." said company president Masao Nakamura.
Not only that, but there seems to have been troubles with the way costumers perceived DoCoMo's FOMA network, as company president admits: "We've been frantically strengthening our network but it is difficult to erase our customers' first impression that the network of the FOMA (service) is weak."
NTT DoCoMo provides leading-edge mobile multimedia services to more than 51 million users, which makes it one of the leading mobile phone companies worldwide. It holds i-mode, one of the most popular mobile Internet services, one that has more than 47 million subscribers and also FOMA, which is the first 3G mobile service. Recently, DoCoMo has introduced "Osaifu-Keitai", which stands for mobile phones with wallet functions that enable money transactions for several services.