Japan’s Softbank Mobile was the country’s top performer yet again in terms of net subscriber gains in January, adding 185,000 new users to close out the month with more than 21.85 million subscribers. NTT DoCoMo meanwhile, added a net 108,200 new users last month for a total of 55.54 million, to retain its top spot overall in the market. eMobile reported 63,300 new customers for a total of 2.18 million while KDDI’s au brand trailled in fourth with 52,900 new users for a total of 31.44 million. The country’s PHS operator Willcom lost a net 58,500 subscribers to end January with a base of 4.24 million, although the number of customers using its ‘Core 3G’ service rose to 85,200, up from at end-2009.
Figures published by the Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) confirm that Japan was home to a total of 111,026,600 mobile users at 31 January 2010, up from 110,617,400 a month earlier.