Eurotechnology Japan KK
Mobile base station numbers explode in Japan
Mobile data traffic drive base station growth    Dec. 13, 2010
Greetings!,  mobile phone base station installations exploded in Japan during 2010. During 2010 about 65,500 3G-base stations were installed in Japan - about two times more than the sum-total of all base stations in the United Kingdom!

While DoCoMo's and KDDI's base station growth was steady, SoftBank ramped up base station installations dramatically, driven by SoftBank's excellent financial results, and to mitigate SoftBank's spectrum handicaps. Read more in this newsletter below, find more details in our JCOMM-Report.

DoCoMo starts commercial LTE services on Dec 24, 2010, and already has approx. 600 LTE base stations installed (for details see our JCOMM-report and our DoCoMo-report).

Well positioned base station vendors and companies offering components and software for base stations benefit, as well as subscribers, who will enjoy better coverage and better data speeds.

Japan's regulator, the General Affairs Ministry, has recently announced, that additional spectrum in the very favorable 800MHz region will be made available, fueling further growth.

Follow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook
SoftBank's success drives jump in base stations
3G base station growth in Japan
3G basestation growth exploded during 2010

During the last five years, approx. 30,000 - 40,000 mobile phone base stations were installed in Japan per year. For 2010, this rate jumped to 65,500 mainly driven by Softbank's success.
Base station numbers grow steadily - explode in 2010
3G base station numbers jumped during 2010
3G basestation numbers jumped during 2010

This figure (from our JCOMM- report) shows that base station numbers have grown steadily over the years, and jump in 2010.

For comparison, the insert shows the sum-total of all installed base stations in the United Kingdom.
2G networks are switched off completely
Figure shows 3G, 2G, Wimax and LTE base stations
Figure shows Japan's 2G, 3G, Wimax and LTE base stations

While in most countries 2G and 3G mobile networks are maintained in parallel, in Japan 2G networks are switched off, as shown in the figure on the left (from our JCOMM-report).
LTE to start on December 24, 2010
LTE base station deployment in Japan
About 600 LTE base stations are ready to go live on Dec 24, 2010

To provide higher data capacity, DoCoMo will start LTE services from December 24, 2010. Currently about 600 LTE base stations are ready to go (detailed analysis and statistics of Japan's base station markets are in our  JCOMM-report).
::: About us :::
Founded in 1996/1997 in Tokyo, Eurotechnology Japan KK focuses on telecommunications and environmental industries. We work on M&A and help foreign companies grow in Japan, we help Japanese companies globalize, and we have advised about 100 investment fund managers over the years on technology industries. Our founder Gerhard Fasol works with Japan's telecom industry since 1984.
Need more information?
- Watch  video clips of live interviews on CNBC,
- follow us on Twitter,
- subscribe to our VIP newsletters,
- purchase or subscribe to our reports,
- or send us email because we need your feedback.

Sincerely,
Your Eurotechnology-Japan Team
Eurotechnology Japan K. K.
::: (c) 2010 Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved.  :::