Japan Leads The Way With New Communication Systems

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug 13, 2007 -
Report Buyer, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, has added a new report which announces that Japan continues holding its position at the forefront of the world market for cutting-edge communication technologies.

“2007 Asia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Japan” reports that when it comes to communications technologies such as use of third-generation mobile (3G), fibre-to-the-home (FttH) broadband and internet telephony, Japan sets the world pace. The country’s 3G mobile market is already outpacing last year’s annual growth rate, a quarter of broadband services will have fibre-to-the-home by end 2007, and about 18 million Japanese will be using internet-protocol telephony services.

Japan has a mature mobiles market with eight out of ten users owning a mobile. 76% of the country’s mobile subscriber base is linked to 3G, and that places the 3G subscriber base at over 73 million. The success of the market has its roots in the fact that mobile handsets are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and inbuilt cameras are particularly popular, but also draws from fierce local market competition.

Japan has over 26 million broadband lines and ranks third in the world behind China and the U.S. But consumers are taking to high-speed fibre-to-the-home broadband so rapidly that Japan shows highest growth in the market worldwide. This market has demonstrated a 70% growth from last year moving from 7.9 million in 2006, to 11.5 million in 2007. The report reveals that FttH scores over DSL because subscribers do not pay a basic telephone subscription with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). A growing number of subscribers are also beginning to be dissatisfied with unreliable and slow connections associated with DSL.

The study documents that IP telephony in Japan has also seen a remarkable success. The market is expected to have gained nearly four million subscribers this year, drawing from the fact that IP gives customers a more comprehensive range of voice and data services, and more efficiently than fixed-line systems.

The report takes into account significant commitments by the Government and operators to overhaul existing infrastructure. For instance, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced that it intended moving from the domestic fixed-line telephone network to a fully integrated IP system by 2010. This move is likely to cost approximately 50 billion yen. Similarly, the largest market operators KDDI and NTT have shared plans to do away with fixed-lines services in favour of IP by 2008 and 2010 respectively.

The report highlights all the current market dynamics including relevant takeovers and business strategies and puts the fast-growing Japan market in perspective.

“2007 Asia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Japan” is available from Report Buyer. For more information go to: http://www.reportbuyer.com/telecoms/country_overviews_tel...

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