KDDI FTTH Takes Big Jump

KDDI Japan's FTTH business took a big jump in the first quarter of 2006 with its acquisition of power company Tepco's fixed line and FTTH business. KDDI finished its FY 2006 in March 2006 167 thousand FTTH subscribers. It had 216 thousand FTTH subscribers at the end of December 2006.

The number of FTTH subscribers jumped to 592 thousand at the end of its 2007 fiscal year in March. It estimates that it will have 900 thousand FTTH subscribers by the end of March 2008. Its objective is to capture 30 percent of the FTTH subscribers in the Tokyo metropolitan area. It plans to expand its FTTH business to other areas of Japan based on its success in Tokyo. Its strategy is to use FTTH and other broadband business to turn around its wireline business.

KDDI has not disclosed its number of IPTV subscribers. Based on discussions with KDDI, I estimate that the number of KDDI's IPTV subscribers grew from 45 thousand in March 2006 to 65 thousand in March 2007.

As far as I know, Tepco was not offering IPTV services. I expect that KDDI will expand its IPTV service to its full FTTH subscriber base, which should cause a big jump in IPTV subscribers this year.