The world's most successful mobile internet service helped profits at NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese telecoms company, to leap 45% last year despite a sluggish domestic economy and an increasingly tough global business environment.
DoCoMo earned a net profit of 365bn yen (£2.1bn) for the year to March 31 thanks largely to strong demand for its i-mode service, which offers continuous access to email and tailored web pages offering information such as sports results, restaurant guides and cinema listings.
Little more than three years after its launch, the number of i-mode subscribers has passed the 22m mark, which helped to push DoCoMo's sales up 26% last year to ¥4.7 trillion.
"We are very pleased with the results and they are above our original expectations," said DoCoMo's president and chief executive, Keiji Tachikawa. "This shows that Japan's mobile communications market is still strong."
To take the business overseas, the company invested ¥1.8 trillion in leading telecoms players such as Hutchison in Britain, AT&T in the US and KPN in the Netherlands.
In October, DoCoMo plans to be the first company to launch third-generation mobile internet services that will be capable of transmitting video and music. The 3G service had been expected this month, but Mr Tachikawa said the delay would not have much of an impact on earnings as initial sales of the new technology were never forecast to be strong.
Investors appear to agree. Bucking the downward trend in global telecoms stocks, DoCoMo's share price has risen 30% since the start of the year.
Mr Tachikawa said DoCoMo aimed to grab an 80% share of the domestic mobile phone market, sharply up from its current level of 59%. Next month, it will cut charges 9%.
This throws down the gauntlet to Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile phone operator - which expanded its presence in Japan last week by taking a controlling stake in Japan Telecom and its mobile affiliate J-Phone.
Japan's mobile sector is growing rapidly, according to an industry group report yesterday. The Telecommunications Carriers Association said the number of mobile telephone users in Japan rose 18.9% year-on-year to 62m in April.
