The TCA (Telecommunications Carrier Association) released the subscriber growth numbers of the four major mobile carriers.

As of November 30th, there were 85 million subscribers (excluding PHS), an increase of 312,000 in comparison with October 31. DoCoMo was still by far the largest with almost 48 million subscribers, followed by KDDI – 18 million – and Vodafone – 15 million. KDDI daughter Tu-Ka had 3.5 million subscribers.

If we look at the growth numbers for this calendar year, KDDI is growing at the same absolute rate as DoCoMo, while Vodafone is feeling control from its headquarters. This year, Vodafone headquarters started synchronizing the deployment of new services and devices world-wide. Because Japan is well ahead of the other Vodafone territories, it could not launch as sexy devices as KDDI and Vodafone.

Japanese carrier TU-KA is targeting the elderly with a new no-nonsense mobile manufactured by Kyocera. The 87 gram phone has large buttons and works as a wireless home phone. There is no LCD panel. Battery life-time (in stand-by mode) is 840 hours — more than a month. The manual is only a few pages thick.
To dial a number, the user first has to push the green button and then enter the number. This reminds us of old home-phone. A smart move from TU-KA to attract potential users that are afraid to use advanced mobiles that come with a 200-page manual.

TU-KA is part of the KDDI group, and is the smallest carrier with just 3.6 million subscribers as of October 31, 2004.