COSTA MESA, Calif., Aug. 28, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- The CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) today congratulates KDDI on consistently gaining the most net subscribers in Japan during every month for the past year, since July 2005. In July 2006, KDDI added 303,100 subscribers to its network, bringing its total number of customers to about 23.9 million. In this category, KDDI continues to outperform its competition in the region by a large margin. Migrating their second-generation PDC and cdmaOne(tm) subscribers to third-generation (3G) CDMA2000 1X, and later upgrading them to CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (WIN), is one reason for KDDI's success.
In addition, KDDI's overall average revenue per user (ARPU) for data services increased to $17.00 USD (1970 JPY) from $15.60 USD (1810 JPY) over the past 12 months. This number purely represents the revenue from packet data and does not include contribution from SMS which is counted in voice ARPU. The highest contributors to KDDI's data ARPU came from its 1xEV-DO subscribers who sustained an impressive data ARPU of $30.10 USD (3490 JPY) over the past year. KDDI's overall data ARPU now represents 30% of its total ARPU of $58.70 USD (6810 JPY) per month. This is an important leading indicator when considering the erosion of voice ARPU that is being experienced by most operators worldwide.
"The CDG is pleased to see such a strong market response to KDDI's CDMA2000 1xEV-DO service," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "Japan has a highly discerning market of seasoned technophiles, and their choice of services has significant importance for the telecommunications industry."
Dr. Hideo Okinaka, vice president and general manager, Technical Standards and Spectrum Division of KDDI commented, "The success of our EV-DO network is indicative of the growing demand for 3G services and applications. CDMA continues to outperform our competition and our continued increase in data users and revenues prove that reality. With our introduction of Rev A, we will continue to capture market share with the availability of new and optimized data applications."
KDDI will invest $1.73 billion over the next three years to upgrade its nationwide network to CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision (Rev A) technology and will begin deploying Rev A advanced broadband services by December 2006. The launch will further strengthen its competitive position following the availability of number portability in October 2006. Rev A is an evolutionary enhancement to 1xEV-DO Release 0, optimized for mobile broadband packet data services, supporting peak download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps and upload speeds up to 1.8 Mbps. Rev A also reduces system latencies well below 40 milliseconds to support symmetric, delay-sensitive applications such as carrier-grade voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), high-performance video telephony, push-to-talk, push-to-media, and real-time multiplayer online gaming.
CDMA2000 consistently proves to be the most economical and flexible solution for next generation services -- capable of affordably delivering the Voice/Video/Data "triple-play" and enabling the convergence of telecommunications with entertainment, consumer electronics and information technology. Aside from its time-to-market lead in delivering 3G services, CDMA2000 offers several other advantages over competing technologies, including open standards, interoperability, economies of scale, removable user identity modules (R-UIM), seamless global roaming, post- and prepaid solutions, Java, Windows Mobile and BREW-enabled phones, and a large selection of rich and versatile value-added services.
More information on CDMA2000 is available at www.cdg.org.
About CDMA
CDMA2000 is the most widely deployed 3G technology, with 164 operators in 72 countries, including 41 CDMA2000 1x-EV-DO systems, serving more than 275 million subscribers. Counting 2G cdmaOne(tm) subscribers, there are more than 335 million CDMA users worldwide. CDMA2000 has become the technology of choice for cdmaOne, TDMA, analog and greenfield operators, and is deployed in the 450, 800, 1700, 1900 and 2100 MHz bands. Nearly 1,250 CDMA2000 devices from more than 80 suppliers have been introduced to the market, including more than 280 1xEV-DO devices. More information on CDMA2000 is available on the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
About CDG
The CDMA2000 Development Group is a trade association formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of CDMA2000 technologies. The more than 130 member companies of the CDG include many of the world's largest wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers. The primary activities of the CDG include development of CDMA2000 features and services, public relations, education and seminars, regulatory affairs and international support. Currently, there are more than 500 individuals working within various CDG subcommittees on CDMA2000-related matters. For more information about the CDG, contact the CDG News Bureau at +1-714-540-1030, or visit the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
Note to editors
cdmaOne and WorldMode is a registered trademark of the CDMA2000 Development Group. CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA-USA). All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.