Japan top mobile carrier says 9-month profit rises

TOKYO - NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's top mobile phone carrier, said Friday its net profit for the April-December period grew 16 percent from a year earlier, benefiting from a new installment-based system for selling handsets and a slowdown in the number of subscribers jumping ship to rivals.

DoCoMo's posted a net profit of 437.7 billion ($4.8 billion) yen during the nine-month period from 376.5 billion yen a year earlier. Operating income rose 19 percent to 746.8 billion yen, while revenue fell 4 percent to 3.38 trillion yen.

As of Dec. 31, the company had 54.16 million subscribers, up 220,000 from three months earlier.

DoCoMo holds a 50 percent share of Japan's massive cell phone market, but rivals KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp. have been aggressive in luring subscribers away with lower fees since the start of mobile number portability in October 2006.

But DoCoMo said it managed to attract more customers than it lost in December due to its "comprehensive review of all our operations from customers relations to handsets and network development in order to enhance customer satisfaction."

DoCoMo maintained its forecast for the full fiscal year through March. It expects net income of 495 billion yen, operating profit of 830 billion yen and revenue of 4.6 trillion yen.

Its earnings results are based on U.S. accounting standards.

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