Japan - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband

This publication has been discontinued on October 25, 2011.

Below is the updated product.

Japan - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts, 17th Edition

Published: October, 2011

Product code: 219520

Introduction

Abstract

Japan is a leading country in technology use. The report covers trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP and IPTV developments.

• 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.

• The number of broadband lines in Japan has posted dramatic growth to over 31 million by end 2009. In terms of quality and affordability, Japan' s telecommunications infrastructure is significantly ahead of those in the US and Europe. Going into 2010, DSL subscribers were still declining from the peak in 2006, as customers continued to shift to FttH. Subscribers of FttH had reached over 15 million by mid-2009;
• 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. Japan had over 92 million wireless Internet subscribers going into 2010;
• 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 United States, in December 2009. The TPE now has a capacity of up to 5.12Tb/s, and comprises around 18,000 km of cable. The construction and startup of the Japan-Asia leg was the second phase of construction for TPE. It has been operational since September 2008, interconnecting Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and the US;
• 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.

For those needing high level strategic analysis and objective analysis on Japan, this report is essential reading and gives further information 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 parliament and ended a half-century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP);
• 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 sales policy of mobile phone service providers, where companies now expect consumers to shoulder the full cost of new mobile phones;
• 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 Japan in mid-2009. Corporations are beginning to use cloud-based services for the simplified introduction of ICT systems, as well as to reduce system-operating costs and lower the environmental impact of their ICT operations;
• In November 2009 the Google-invested Unity trans-Pacific cable landing in Japan and to be ready for service in Q1 2010. The cable, Google' s first direct investment in telecom bandwidth, is also invested by Asian carriers SingTel, PacNet, Bharti Airtel and KDDI.

Table of Contents

1. Key Statistics

2. Telecommunications Market

• 2.1 Overview of Japan' s telecom market
• 2.2 Fixed-line and mobile phones in Japan
• 2.3 Broadband and wireless Internet in Japan

3. Regulatory Environment

• 3.1 Major stages of reform
• 3.2 Reform background
• 3.3 The MPHPT/MIC
• 3.4 Radio Regulatory Council
• 3.5 Telecommunications Council
• 3.6 Japan Internet Providers' Association (JAIPA)
• 3.7 Interconnection arrangements
  • 3.7.1 Fixed-mobile interconnection
• 3.8 Universal Service Fund Obligation
• 3.9 E-Japan
• 3.10 U-Japan
• 3.11 A ubiquitously networked society
• 3.12 Policy interventions and outcomes
  • 3.12.1 Government investment in infrastructure
  • 3.12.2 Skill building, education and demand programs
  • 3.12.3 Competition policy
  • 3.12.4 Network non-discrimination
  • 3.12.5 Spectrum policy
• 3.13 Recent regulatory developments
  • 3.13.1 Year 2009
  • 3.13.2 Year 2008
  • 3.13.3 Years 2000-2007

4. Major Operators

• 4.1 Operating environment
• 4.2 NTT Corporation
• 4.3 NTT East and West broadband
• 4.4 NTT Communications
• 4.5 NTT Data Corporation
• 4.6 NTT DoCoMo
• 4.7 KDDI Corporation
  • 4.7.1 au and Tu-KA Mobile Business
  • 4.7.2 Fixed-line operations
  • 4.7.3 UQ Communications
• 4.8 Softbank Corporation
  • 4.8.1 Vodafone K.K. (formerly J-Phone)
• 4.9 Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ)
• 4.10 Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM)
• 4.11 ACCA Networks Inc
• 4.12 eAccess
• 4.13 eMobile
• 4.14 Willcom (DDI Pocket)
• 4.15 SKY PerfecTV! Communications Inc (Sky Perfect JSAT)

5. Telecommunications Infrastructure

• 5.1 Overview of infrastructure developments in Japan
  • 5.1.1 The push to develop Next Generation Network (NGN) standards
  • 5.1.2 Opening up the last mile
• 5.2 Regulatory issues
  • 5.2.1 Policy on national information superhighway
  • 5.2.2 Government' s IT Basic Strategy
  • 5.2.3 Government plan for ubiquitous networks
  • 5.2.4 Stimulus package for ICT infrastructure
• 5.3 Fixed-network market
  • 5.3.1 Market background
  • 5.3.2 MYLINE Carrier Selection Service (CSS)
• 5.4 Domestic services
  • 5.4.1 Local calls
  • 5.4.2 National long-distance calls
  • 5.4.3 International calls
• 5.5 Broadband networks
  • 5.5.1 Overview
• 5.6 Implementing leading edge technologies
  • 5.6.1 High-speed fibre
  • 5.6.2 IP version 6 capable IP-VPN service
  • 5.6.3Cloud-based services
• 5.7 International submarine cable infrastructure
  • 5.7.1 Overview
  • 5.7.2 NTT and TransTelecom of Russia
  • 5.7.3 Trans-Pacific Express Cable Network (TPE)
  • 5.7.4 APCN3
  • 5.7.5 Pacific Crossing (PC-1)
  • 5.7.6 Australia-Japan Cable (AJC)
  • 5.7.7 Google investments
• 5.8 Data centres
• 5.9 Satellite infrastructure
  • 5.9.1 Overview
  • 5.9.2 Major satellite operators

6. E-services

• 6.1 Overview
• 6.2 E-commerce
  • 6.2.1 Alibaba
  • 6.2.2 eBay
  • 6.2.3 Google
• 6.3 E-cash
• 6.4 E-banking
• 6.5 E-advertising
• 6.6 E- paper
• 6.7 Social networking
• 6.8 E-government
  • 6.8.1 Overview
  • 6.8.2 Comprehensive government decisions on e-government
  • 6.8.3 Promotion of online use of administrative procedures
  • 6.8.4 Promotion of electronic provision of government information
  • 6.8.5 Promotion of activities to publicise and disseminate e-government
  • 6.8.6 Promotion of optimisation of work and systems
  • 6.8.7 Improvement of government procurement related to information systems
  • 6.8.8 Promotion of information security measures
  • 6.8.9 Promotion of local e-governments

7. Broadband Market

• 7.1 Overview
• 7.2 Survey results
• 7.3 Broadband strategy
  • 7.3.1 Next Generation Broadband strategy FY 2010
  • 7.3.2 Japan' s New Generation Network
• 7.4 Regulatory framework
  • 7.4.1 P2P Network Experiment Council
• 7.5 Wireline broadband
  • 7.5.1 Cable modems
  • 7.5.2 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
  • 7.5.3 Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)
• 7.6 Wireless broadband
  • 7.6.1 Wireless LAN (WLAN)
  • 7.6.2 World Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)
  • 7.6.3 Broadband Internet via satellite
• 7.7 Selected broadband services
  • 7.7.1 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
  • 7.7.2 Internet Protocol TV (IPTV)
  • 7.7.3 Video-on-Demand (VoD)
• 7.8 Broadband charges
• 7.9 Electric power utilities
• 7.10 Wholesale market
  • 7.10.1 Overview

8. Digital Media

• 8.1 Television in Japan
  • 8.1.1 Overview and statistics
  • 8.1.2 Digital TV
  • 8.1.3 Cable TV (CATV)
  • 8.1.4 Satellite TV

9. Mobile Communications

• 9.1 Background
• 9.2 Statistical overview
• 9.3 Market developments
• 9.4 New entrants into the mobile market
• 9.5 Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO)
• 9.6 Differentiation efforts
• 9.7 Mobile technologies
  • 9.7.1 PDC
  • 9.7.2 CDMA
  • 9.7.3 PHS
  • 9.7.4 Third Generation (3G) mobile
  • 9.7.5 Fourth Generation (4G) mobile
  • 9.7.6 Japan: A key region for LTE development
  • 9.7.7 Mobile handset market
• 9.8 Major mobile operators
  • 9.8.1 Overview
  • 9.8.2 Statistics
• 9.9 Mobile services
  • 9.9.1 Market background
  • 9.9.2 Prepaid cards
  • 9.9.3 Mobile Internet
  • 9.9.4 Push-to-Talk (PTT)
• 9.10 Mobile content
  • 9.10.1 Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • 9.10.2 M-commerce/m-cash
  • 9.10.3 Mobile banking
  • 9.10.4 Mobile advertising
  • 9.10.5 Mobile TV and radio
  • 9.10.6 Mobile ringtone and music downloads
• 9.11 Mobile applications
  • 9.11.1 Earthquake alerts
  • 9.11.2 Personal trainer
  • 9.11.3 QR code readers
  • 9.11.4 Environmental sensors

10. Glossary of Abbreviations

TABLES:

• Table 1 - Country statistics Japan - 2009
• Table 2 - Telecom revenue and investment statistics - 2009
• Table 3 - Telephone network statistics - March 2009
• Table 4 - Internet user statistics - 2008
• Table 5 - Broadband statistics - June 2009
• Table 6 - Mobile statistics - October 2009
• Table 7 - National telecommunications authorities
• Table 8 - Number of competitive telecommunications carriers: 1985; 1989; 1993; 1997; 2001; 2005 - 2009
• Table 9 - Number of telecommunications carriers in Japan - November 2008
• Table 10 - Subscribers and penetration: fixed-line versus mobile - 1993 - 2010; 2015 (e), 2020 (e)
• Table 11 - Monthly fixed and mobile call volumes by minutes - 2003; 2008
• Table 12 - Monthly fixed and mobile call volumes per head (minutes) - 2003; 2008
• Table 13 - Mobile as a proportion of total telecommunications connections - 2003; 2008
• Table 14 - Internet subscribers, cable modem, DSL and FttH - 2002 - 2009
• Table 15 - Carrier share of broadband subscribers - 2005 - 2009
• Table 16 - Broadband household subscribers and service availability - 2006 - 2007; 2011
• Table 17 - Internet, broadband, IP telephony and telecoms statistics for Japan - 2004 - 2009
• Table 18 - NTT major shareholders - March 2009
• Table 19 - NTT financial data - 2000 - 2010
• Table 20 - NTT proportion of operating revenue by segment - 2001 - 2009
• Table 21 - NTT subscribers by service - November 2009
• Table 22 - NTT forecast consolidated revenue composition - 2008 - 2013
• Table 23 - NTT Broadband subscribers and market share by segment - 2004 - 2009
• Table 24 - NTT Com operating revenue and net income - 2001 - 2009
• Table 25 - NTT Data revenue and annual change - 2001 - 2009
• Table 26 - NTT DoCoMo major shareholders - March 2009
• Table 27 - NTT DoCoMo revenue, net income, CAPEX and EBITDA - 2005 - 2010
• Table 28 - NTT DoCoMo CAPEX breakdown - 2007 - 2010
• Table 29 - NTT DoCoMo subscribers - November 2009
• Table 30 - NTT DoCoMo ARPU, MOU and Churn - 2004 - 2013
• Table 31 - NTT DoCoMo aggregate ARPU, mova and FOMA - 2005 - 2010
• Table 32 - NTT DoCoMo ID payment terminals and DCMX members - 2007 - 2009
• Table 33 - NTT DoCoMo' s subscribers by technology and ARPU - 2002 - 2010
• Table 34 - NTT DoCoMo plans: technology and speed - 2006 - 2011
• Table 35 - NTT DoCoMo investment in international operators - March 2009
• Table 36 - KDDI financial data - 2001 - 2010
• Table 37 - KDDI proportion of revenue by segment - 2001 - 2010
• Table 38 - KDDI capital expenditure on mobile and fixed line - 2005 - 2009
• Table 39 - au subscribers by technology and market share - 1997 - 2009
• Table 40 - KDDI au ARPU, MOU and churn - 2001 - 2009
• Table 41 - TU-KA subscribers and market share - 1997 - 2009
• Table 42 - ADSL and FttH subscribers - 2005 - 2010
• Table 43 - Fixed access lines - 2008 - 2010
• Table 44 - UQ Communications major shareholders - March 2009
• Table 45 - Softbank major shareholders - March 2009
• Table 46 - Softbank distribution of ownership among shareholders - March 2009
• Table 47 - Softbank financial data - 1995 - 2009
• Table 48 - Softbank proportion of revenue by segment - 2006 - 2009
• Table 49 - Softbank operational data - thousands of subscribers - 2006 - 2009
• Table 50 - Softbank ARPU and churn - 2004 - 2009
• Table 51 - Softbank market share by service - 2009
• Table 52 - IIJ revenue and net income - 2006 - 2009
• Table 53 - J:COM financial data - 2003 - 2008
• Table 54 - J:COM revenue by service - 2003 - 2008
• Table 55 - J-COM subscribers by service and monthly ARPU - 2000 - 2009
• Table 56 - J-COM households by service bundling - 2003 - 2008
• Table 57 - ACCA Networks revenue and net income - 2006 - 2008
• Table 58 - ACCA Networks subscribers and ARPU by service - 2006 - 2010
• Table 59 - eAccess stakeholders - March 2008
• Table 60 - eAccess financial data - 2004 - 2010
• Table 61 - eMobile revenue, net income, CAPEX and EBITDA - 2006 - 2009
• Table 62 - eMobile subscribers and churn - 2007 - 2010
• Table 63 - SKY PerfecTV! Subscribers - 1998 - 2009
• Table 64 - Market share of fixed-line operators in Japan - June 2009
• Table 65 - MYLINE subscribers - 2002 - 2009
• Table 66 - MYLINE operator market share - 2009
• Table 67 - Japan advertising expenditures by medium - 2006 - 2008
• Table 68 - Japan advertising component ratios by medium - 2006 - 2008
• Table 69 - Broadband subscribers by access type - 1998 - 2009, 2010 (e), 2015 (e), 2020 (e)
• Table 70 - Broadband subscriber annual change and market share by access type - 2001 - 2009
• Table 71 - Broadband subscribers and households - September 2009
• Table 72 - Broadband subscribers and market share by access type - March 2009
• Table 73 - Broadband subscribers and annual change by access type - September 2009
• Table 74 - Percentage of households using Internet connections - March 2008
• Table 75 - Types of Internet terminal access (individuals) - March 2008
• Table 76 - Internet subscribers and penetration rate - 2004 - 2009
• Table 77 - Broadband household subscribers and service availability - 2006 - 2007; 2011
• Table 78 - DSL subscribers and market share by operator - June 2009
• Table 79 - Carrier share of DSL subscribers: 2007 - 2010
• Table 80 - FttH subscribers and market share by operator - June 2009
• Table 81 - Carrier share of FttH subscribers - 2005 - 2010
• Table 82 - Change in ARPU from FttH - 2005 - 2009
• Table 83 - VoIP subscribers and annual change - 2004 - 2008
• Table 84 - VoIP subscribers and market share by operator - 2008
• Table 85 - Carrier share of VoIP subscribers - 2007 - 2010
• Table 86 - Softbank and the world' s leading IPTV operators' subscriber numbers - 2006
• Table 87 - NTT services and charges - 2009
• Table 88 - Tariffs for broadband services - 2008
• Table 89 - Key television metrics in Japan - 2008
• Table 90 - Japan TV industry revenue - 2003 - 2008
• Table 91 - Japan TV reception devices connected to main set in the home - 2008
• Table 92 - Japan Pay TV market share versus free-to-view TV - 2003; 2008
• Table 93 - Cable TV operators, subscribers and household penetration - 1999 - 2009
• Table 94 - Satellite broadcasters and BS and CS subscribers - 1999 - 2009
• Table 95 - Mobile subscriber, annual change & penetration rate - 1995 - 2010; 2015 (e); 2020 (e)
• Table 96 - Mobile subscribers by system - November 2009
• Table 97 - Carrier share of mobile telephones and PHS - 2005 - 2009
• Table 98 - Market share of mobile operators in Japan - June 2009
• Table 99 - cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1x and WCDMA subscribers - 1999 - 2009
• Table 100 - PHS subscribers by carrier - 2004 - 2009
• Table 101 - PHS subscribers - 1995 - 2009
• Table 102 - 3G mobile subscribers by operator - November 2009
• Table 103 - Market share of 3G mobile operators in Japan - June 2009
• Table 104 - Japan 3G subscribers - 2004 - 2010; 2015; 2020
• Table 105 - Number of handsets sold - 2006 - 2009
• Table 106 - Mobile subscribers by operator and technology - November 2009
• Table 107 - Mobile subscribers, ARPU and churn by operator - 2004 - 2009
• Table 108 - Net additions by operator - 2006 - 2009
• Table 109 - Prepaid mobile subscribers - 2008
• Table 110 - Mobile wireless Internet subscribers, services and technology by provider - Nov 2009
• Table 111 - Mobile wireless Internet subscribers by providers - 2004 - 2009
• Table 112 - Mobile wireless Internet subscribers - 2000 - 2009
• Table 113 - ARPU for mobile business - 2001 - 2006; 2010 (e), 2015 (e), 2020 (e)

EXHIBITS:

• Exhibit 1 - Significant telecoms operators in Japan
• Exhibit 2 - NTT Group structure - March 2009
• Exhibit 3 - Softbank operations
• Exhibit 4 - Major members of MYLINE Carriers Association - January 2009
• Exhibit 5 - Major global/regional submarine cables with landing point in Japan - 2009
• Exhibit 6 - Differences between NXGN and NWGN
• Exhibit 7 - Types of telecom convergence
• Exhibit 8 - NTT IPTV services and features - 2009 - 2010
• Exhibit 9 - Representative charges per service in Tokyo - 2008
• Exhibit 10 - Long-term evolution (LTE) roadmap in Japan - 2008 - 2012

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