InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

[nieves]

J-Phone beats KDDI in terms of new contract rise for 2 months



RELATED SYMBOLS: (KDDIF)

TOKYO, Feb 07, 2003 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- J-Phone Co. outstripped KDDI Corp. in
Japan's mobile phone market in January in terms of net subscription contract
rises, the second straight month it has beaten its rival, the Telecommunications
Carriers Association said Friday.

Net increases -- new contracts minus the number of canceled contracts -- came to
159,000 contracts at industry leader NTT DoCoMo Inc., 133,000 at J-Phone, an
ally of Britain's Vodafone group, and 115,000 at KDDI, the association said.

NTT DoCoMo was boosted by the popularity of its camera-equipped mobile phones
capable of taking photos and sending them to other cell phones, it said.

J-Phone bolstered its subscription number on the strength of its policy of
holding down the prices of sophisticated mobile handsets, it said.

But when the market is assessed on the basis of the total number of subscription
contracts, KDDI retained the No. 2 position with its contract total standing at
13.58 million, 126,000 more than J-Phone.

The total number of subscription contracts held by the three mobile service
providers came to 73.90 million at the end of January, up 0.5% over the previous
month, it said.

J-Phone and KDDI will step up their rivalry prior to the annual mobile handset
shopping season around March, when many students buy or are given handsets to
commemorate their entrance to new schools, industry officials said.

When the market positions of the three are examined from the angle of net
contract increases for their third-generation (3G) mobile phone handsets, KDDI
had the No. 1 position with 639,000 contracts obtained during the month.

J-Phone and NTT DoCoMo were far behind, with J-Phone's 3G net contract increase
for the month coming to only 3,500 and that of NTT DoCoMo to 2,600, it added.

The two suffered from the limited range in which their 3G capabilities can be
utilized.

3G mobile phones enable holders to talk while watching a video of their
conversion partners on the monitor of a palm-sized handset, and also allows them
to swap moving images of objects which they photograph with their handset
camera.



2003 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945

-0-


KEYWORD: TOKYO

(Wall Street)