Too-Much-TV

Softbank, losses as broadband grows

Total number of DSL subscribers in Japan at the end of January was 10,612,671, up 340,619 from December.

Softbank issued quarterly results last week. The Nikkei reported the figures as a ¥93.68 billion net loss in the 9 months ending December 31, 2003. The Internet division was responsible for losses of ¥6.65 billion in the quarter ending December 31, ¥15.16 billion in the quarter ending September, and ¥24.20 billion in the quarter ending June. Total of -¥46.01 billion in the 3 quarters.

Yahoo!BB had 3.81 million subscribers at the end of January, up 122,000 from December. The NTT group 3,871,895 DSL subscribers, up just under 98,000 on December. Expensive catch-up.

Softbank gave the main reason for the losses as Yahoo!BB's spending on promoting its services, a lot of introductory free offers and "specials". (The sidewalk stall was back in my neighbourhood last weekend. 2 people standing around on a street corner for a Saturday asking people to sign up for DSL, VoIP and some content services.)

MPHPT, outline of telecoms in Japan (report)

New telecoms "Yellow Book" (1.4 mb) has been published

MPHPT describes the report as:

"Outline of the Telecommunications Business in Japan -- February 2004
This document describes the current situation surrounding the telecommunications business, including the competition policy trend in Japan, with a focus on statistical data (such as communication charges, diffusion of the Internet, and mobile communications) and it is updated every two months in principal."