SoftBank has revealed the telecom operator’s achievements during the June quarter of 2019 – ahead of its 5G launch in 2020.
SoftBank’s total mobile phone subscriber base rose to 35.010 million in June 2019 from 34.741 million in March 2019.
SoftBank’s smartphone subscriber base increased to 22.453 million in June 2019 from 22.082 million in March 2019.
SoftBank has added 269K mobile phone subscribers and 372K smartphone subscribers during June 2019 as compared with 434K mobile phone subscribers and 581K smartphone subscribers during March 2019.
SoftBank’s broadband subscriber base increased to 7.704 million in June 2019 from 7.643 million in March 2019.
SoftBank’s ARPU from mobile customers increased to 4,450 yen in June 2019 from 4,320 yen in March 2019.
SoftBank’s smartphones churn rate increased to 0.81 percent in June 2019 from 0.77 percent in March 2019.
SoftBank said its capital expenditures (Capex) were 105,927 million yen, an increase of 8,739 million yen in the three months ended June 30, 2019, mainly due to a decrease in capital investments in the LTE service.
Revenue increased 3.6 percent year on year to 658,070 million yen. Telecom service revenues rose 6.2 percent year on year to 518,375 million yen.
Mobile communications revenue rose 5.7 percent year on year to 423,330 million yen — mainly due to an increase in smartphone subscribers and a decrease in monthly discounts.
Broadband revenue rose 8.2 percent to 95,045 million yen — due to an increase in subscribers to the SoftBank Hikari fiber-optic service.
The company’s operating profit was 268.9 billion yen ($2.54 billion) in the first quarter.
Its smartphone subscribers rose 372,000 from three months earlier as SoftBank markets a plan targeting heavy data users.
The telco maintained its full-year operating profit forecast at 890 billion yen, up 9 percent from the previous year.
SoftBank has hiked its stake in Yahoo Japan and turned the internet company into a subsidiary to drive growth outside its wireless business.
The telco’s outline for expansion includes a platform for autonomous driving that it has set up with Toyota Motor and plans to export, Reuters reported.
Such ventures will require 5G services set to begin in Japan next year and that SoftBank CEO Ken Miyauchi says will drive growth at the telco and calm fears that the country’s market has hit maturity.
