DoCoMo follows KDDI in spinning off PHS business

DoCoMo will stop accepting new PHS subscriptions at the end of April to focus on its third-generation (3G) cellphone business. As of January 2005, DoCoMo PHS business accounted for 1,369,200 subscribers.

The company expects to incur a loss of 61 billion yen due to impaired assets held by the money-losing PHS division, according to DoCoMo.

While DoCoMo chose to gradually phase out PHS service, KDDI took more radical measures and sold out its DDI Pocket division in 2004 to a group of companies, including Carlye (60%) and Kyocera (30%). KDDI will keep the remaining 10% stake in the new company though. After the deal, DDI Pocket has changed its name to Willcom Group. As of January 2005, Willcom enjoyed the leardership in the PHS market segment with 2,991,200 subscribers.

The third PHS operator in Japan Astel Group lags a way behind Willcom and DoCoMo PHS with a subscriber base of 144,300 in January 2005.