(Associated Press via NewsEdge) KDDI reported a 24% increase in its July-September quarter net profit on strong growth in its mobile phone business.
KDDI, Japan's second biggest mobile carrier after NTT DoCoMo, said its group net profit jumped to 60.4 billion yen ($510 million) for fiscal second quarter from 48.85 billion yen ($411 million) the same period last year.
Sales climbed 6.9% to 806.4 billion yen ($6.8 billion) during the quarter from 754.5 billion yen ($6.4 billion) a year earlier.
KDDI president Tadashi Onodera said the company was aggressively trying to retain users as well as win over new ones as regulator changes taking effect next week would allow Japanese subscribers to switch carriers while keeping their mobile phone numbers.
KDDI's mobile services have tried to draw younger people by marketing their music download services, and to strengthen its services using the global positioning system satellite features of their handsets.
The mobile business marked a sales increase of nearly 7% and a 24% rise in operating profit during the July-September period from the same period a year earlier, the company said.
But competition has been heating up not only with NTT DoCoMo but also with Softbank, which is also on an aggressive push to boost sales since taking over the Japan mobile unit of Vodafone Group.
KDDI maintained its earnings forecasts for the full fiscal year through March, saying that it needed more time to assess the effects of number portability. It expected group net profit of 186 billion yen ($1.6 billion) on sales of 3.29 trillion yen ($27.8 billion).
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