Telecom network operator NTT Docomo has slashed its Capex (capital investment) plan to ¥600 billion or $4.95 billion, a decrease of ¥30 billion from its earlier guidance, for fiscal 2015.
As per the downward revision in investment, NTT Docomo will invest ¥353 billion against ¥366 billion planned earlier in LTE telecommunications in fiscal 2015. NTT Docomo will be investing ¥219 billion in other telecom business, ¥18 billion in smart life business and ¥10 billion in other areas.
Capex of NTT Docomo fell to ¥219.5 billion in H1 FY 2015, a decrease of ¥73 billion.
“However, we are anticipating larger amount of Capex in the second half compared to the first half,” said Kaoru Kato, president and CEO of NTT Docomo.
The Japanese mobile service provider has rolled out 7,700 premium LTE base stations in 640 cities across Japan in the first half of fiscal 2015. NTT Docomo aims to roll out 18,000 premium 4G base stations till March 2016. The total number of LTE base stations of NTT Docomo will be 130,000 in March 2016 against 115,400 in September 2015 and 97,400 in March 2015.
NTT Docomo is planning to make an investment of ¥650 billion in fiscal 2017.
NTT Docomo said its 4G services offering maximum speed of 300 megabit per second reached 410 cities in Japan. In three major cities, Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, NTT Docomo is offering 4G services at the speed of 337.5 megabit per second.
“We will continue to improve efficiency in our Capex, but at the same time, we’ll further upgrade the breadth, the speed and the comfort of our LTE network for our customers,” Kato said.
Docomo Hikari, its optical fiber service, will reach the 1 million mark shortly.
NTT Docomo has 30.75 million smartphone users. LTE-enabled smartphones percentage has risen to 95 percent.
The Japanese telecom network operator is also slashing its guidance on 4G subscriber base for the current fiscal. NTT Docomo is expecting to clock 37 million LTE subscribers in fiscal 2015 against 37.8 million expected earlier. At present, NTT Docomo has 34.5 million LTE susbscribers.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
