28th February - US / ASIA Japan : The CDMA Development Group (CDG) congratulated KDDI for signing up more new users than their rivals since Japan’s mobile number portability (MNP) rules took effect on October 24, 2006. Of the more than one million subscribers who changed their service provider between October 24, 2006 and January 31, 2007, KDDI has witnessed a net increase of 600,000 3G subscribers, while the other Japanese operators have seen a net reduction. Also, when considering all new subscriptions within the past three months ending in January 2007, KDDI garnered 67 percent of the total number of net subscriptions.

“We have watched subscribers effortlessly switch over to KDDI’s CDMA2000 network due to Japan’s recent mobile number portability rule, which is a testament to the value of CDMA2000 and KDDI’s leadership position,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “CDMA2000 continues to deliver advanced 3G services two to three years ahead of the competition, enabling operators to be among the first to offer popular services such as downloading CD-quality songs, watching TV, finding friends with navigation and proximity tools, sending richly-rendered multimedia messages and email with attachments, and communicating via video conference. This is the advantage that keeps KDDI ahead in its market.”

For the past year and a half, KDDI has consistently added more monthly net subscribers to their 3G CDMA2000 network than the other operators have added to their 3G UMTS networks, bringing their total subscriber base by the end of January 2007 to more than 27.4 million.

Mr. Tohru Kawai, Vice President and General Manager, au Business Sector of KDDI stated, “KDDI is delighted with the increasing number of subscribers transferring to our CDMA2000 network. KDDI is committed to continuing to offer its subscribers the latest in technology, services, devices and customer care.”

Since the number portability rule went into effect, the Japanese market has seen an increase in competition among the country’s operators. The operators have begun to augment the value of their service by offering loyalty programs with discounts for heavy phone users, enhancing their mobile device selection and improving the quality of mobile entertainment services. In December, KDDI leapfrogged ahead of its competition by launching its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A network and in January, KDDI continued to be an innovator in technology by announcing ten new 3G handset models focused on enhanced form factor styles and functions, including eight handsets that are digital-TV enabled. Also, up to 78% of KDDI’s EV-DO users have signed up for their simplified flat-rate plans, which have been very popular for those subscribers who switched to KDDI after Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was introduced.

Due to CDMA2000’s increased performance speeds, its broad range of applications, and time-to-market advantage, the technology is becoming the leading standard adopted for next-generation mobile telecommunications. There are more than 350 million CDMA2000 subscribers worldwide.