Japan's largest mobile telephone operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc, said on October 26 its net profit fell by more than 20 percent in the first half of its business year amid a price war among the nation's top carriers.
NTT DoCoMo, the pioneer of third-generation mobile phone services, slightly revised down its sales forecast for the full year as it plans to introduce new discount plans to entice customers.
The company, a unit of telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp, has been the big loser of Japan's introduction a year ago of "number portability," which lets customers switch carriers without changing numbers.
In the first half to September, NTT DoCoMo said its net profit slipped 20.4 percent from a year earlier to 246.5 billion yen (2.16 billion dollars).
Operating profit slid 21 percent to 408.5 billion yen and revenue was down 2.4 percent at 2.3 trillion yen. NTT DoCoMo said it would introduce new discount plans for customers in the third quarter and also continue spending to boost infrastructure.
The company cut its revenue forecast for the full year by 1.3 percent to 4.67 trillion yen, which would represent a fall of some 2.5 percent from the previous financial year.