NTT DoCoMo Sees Imode ARPU Continue To Rise

NTT DoCoMo saw the percentage of its revenue it obtains from data rise again in the second quarter of 2005 to reportedly the world’s highest — US$17.6 per month, according to the September edition of Informa Telecoms & Media‘s World Cellular Data Metrics.
“NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode ARPU alone amounted to US$16.9 in Q2 2005 – this is higher than many operators’ voice and data ARPU combined,” said Kester Mann, Senior Research Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.
There’s a graph of various operators here which shows DoCoMo beating other operators both in absolute data ARPU and the percentage obtained…except UK’s O2 which has a lower ARPU from data but a higher percentage of total ARPU coming from data. However, from the press release:
“Meanwhile, although Filipino operator Smart continues to generate the highest data as a percentage of revenue, 49% in Q2 2005, its data ARPU was just USD 2.6. “A high data as a percentage of revenue does not always correspond to a high data ARPU,” remarked Mann. “Operators are right to focus on increasing data
as a percentage of revenue, but not at the expense of overall revenue.”
Back to DoCoMo, its 43.3 million active i-mode users account for 85% of its total subscription base. Total data revenues exceeded US$2.4 billion for the second quarter…
Related stories:
Sprint-Nextel On Data Revenue
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Earnings: Cingular Wireless Increases ARPU Through Data

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