NTT DOCOMO reclaims ground against iPhone exclusive Softbank

In 2005, telecoms company Softbank bought out Vodafone Japan, giving it a foot in the mobile market. Since then NTT DOCOMO, Japans main operator, has been trailing Softbank for new sign-ups. With Softbanks exclusive iPhone deal in Japan, and recent iPhone 3G S launch, you might have expected that to continue. But this month NTT DOCOMO has closed the sign-up gap to within 500 customers.

After factoring in cancellations, Softbank reported 112,900 new customers this month. NTT DOCOMO reported 112,400. It’s still smaller, but to an almost negligible degree.

How did DOCOMO close the gap? Reuters attributes it to long-term, low cost contracts with unlimited mobile data downloads.

What we think?

I’ve lost count of the number of people who have said this. US and European operators have an almost petulant attitude towards pricing. They will make concessions, and they will drop prices - but only if they’re FORCED to. And they’ll fight it every step of the way, trying to choke every last cent they can out of their consumers. Where the reality is that good value attracts customers.