KDDI added 51,000 FTTH subscribers in 3Q08 giving it a total of 967,000. It is maintaining its goal of 1.14 million FTTH subscribers by the end of its fiscal year in March 2009. Its FTTH ARPU increased to $47, up slightly from 2Q08.
KDDI has not disclosed its count of IPTV subscribers. It will have to set up the pace in Q3 and Q4 from Q2 to achieve its goal for Fiscal 2009.
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
KDDI Adds 206K FTTH Subscribers in 2Q08
KDDI announced that it hadd 916 thousand FTTH subscribes at the end of June 2008, an increase of 206 thousand. It is maintaining its estimate that it will have 1.14 million FTTH subscribers by the end of March 2009. Its FTTH ARPU dropped to $43 in U.S. dollars compared to $45 at the end of March 2008.
KDDI is already half way to its goal for the fiscal year at the end of the first quarter. It appears that this goal bill be easy for KDDI to achieve.
KDDI is already half way to its goal for the fiscal year at the end of the first quarter. It appears that this goal bill be easy for KDDI to achieve.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
OKI Introduces Audience Rating System
Oki Electric announced its Audience Rating Information System for IPTV for the Japanese market, which collects viewership data. This system will enable service providers, with the authorization of the viewers, to obtain information about when and which channel and programs are watched.
The system will collect the viewership data in the form of an audience rating library on the user's device, which will then be encrypted, sent to and registered in the database server at the IPTV distribution center. This information will then be printed out as viewership reports which service providers can offer to program producers.
The audience rating library can be embedded in the set-top-boxes or in the TV with an integrated set-top box. Those who have STBs or TVs without the embedded library can connect a home gateway that has the audience rating library to collect viewership data. This system has been tested in IPTV applications that utilize mutli-casting. OKI will add the system to its product lines that includes the OKI MediaServer, the video distribution server for IPTV, plus home gateways and set-top-boxes.
Oki is one of the video on demand suppliers to NTT's IPTV services. Privacy is becoming a large issue with these systems as consumers come to understand what they are and how they are being deployed.Saturday, June 28, 2008
JCom to Deploy DOCSIS 3.0 in Japan
A Light Reading article describes statements by J:COM, a leading cable provider in Japan, that it plans to fully deploy DOCSIS 3.0 across its network by the end of July 2008. The service provides downstream speeds of 160 Mbps and upstream speeds of 10 Mbps at $60 per month, which is $5 per month higher than its DOCSIS 2.0 service at 30 Mbps downstream. It already has about 30 thousand customers for this service.
J:COM has about 2.8 million subscribers and passes 10 million homes in Japan.
J:COM is taking a much more aggressive approach than the U.S. cable companies with DOCSIS 3.0. Comcast only offers DOCSIS 3.o in the Minneapolis area with a downstream speed of 50 Mbps at $145.99 per month.
The regulatory regimes in many Europe and many countries in Europe have been much more effective than the FCC's approach in the U.S. People in these countries get much higher speeds at lower prices than are available in the U.S.
The U.S. approach has been to pit the cable companies against the Telcos. The problem with this is that they are both entrenched monopolies whose first priority is to protect their own business rather than to compete aggressively with each other. This leads to a cautious rollout of new services. This is why I have been saying that DOCSIS 3.0 will roll out slowly in the U.S. as a high priced premium service.
J:COM has about 2.8 million subscribers and passes 10 million homes in Japan.
J:COM is taking a much more aggressive approach than the U.S. cable companies with DOCSIS 3.0. Comcast only offers DOCSIS 3.o in the Minneapolis area with a downstream speed of 50 Mbps at $145.99 per month.
The regulatory regimes in many Europe and many countries in Europe have been much more effective than the FCC's approach in the U.S. People in these countries get much higher speeds at lower prices than are available in the U.S.
The U.S. approach has been to pit the cable companies against the Telcos. The problem with this is that they are both entrenched monopolies whose first priority is to protect their own business rather than to compete aggressively with each other. This leads to a cautious rollout of new services. This is why I have been saying that DOCSIS 3.0 will roll out slowly in the U.S. as a high priced premium service.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Japanese IPTV Standardization Effort
Several Japanese service providers and manufacturers have joined together to unify the technical standards for IPTV services in the country, with the first compliant devices expected to emerge by March 2009.
NTT, KDDI and Softbank BB have teamed together with Sony, Matsushita Electric, Toshiba, Sharp and Hitachi , plus the country's five major TV broadcasters, including NHK. The group expects to develop standards by the end of this August. Sony, Matsushita and others expect to start selling the first flat-panel televisions with built-in IPTV receivers compliant with the new standards by the end of March 2009.
The forum is also expected to present its work to the International ITU and other global bodies with the help of Japan's Ministry of Communications.
It is a significant step forward to get IPTV implemented into TVs and other consumer electronic devices. They face significant issues. It will be interesting to see if they can meet this schedule and how the resulting products are accepted.
NTT, KDDI and Softbank BB have teamed together with Sony, Matsushita Electric, Toshiba, Sharp and Hitachi , plus the country's five major TV broadcasters, including NHK. The group expects to develop standards by the end of this August. Sony, Matsushita and others expect to start selling the first flat-panel televisions with built-in IPTV receivers compliant with the new standards by the end of March 2009.
The forum is also expected to present its work to the International ITU and other global bodies with the help of Japan's Ministry of Communications.
It is a significant step forward to get IPTV implemented into TVs and other consumer electronic devices. They face significant issues. It will be interesting to see if they can meet this schedule and how the resulting products are accepted.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
KDDI at 710K FTTH Subscribers
KDDI announced that it added 118 thousand FTTH subscribers in its fiscal year ending in March 2008 giving a total of 710 thousand. It missed its previous target of 900 thousand FTTH subscribers by a wide margin. Its target for March 2008 is 1.14 million subscribers.
KDDI stated that its FTTH ARPU was quite flat at $45 per month. It also stated that it is under significant margin pressure where it uses unbundled NTT fiber loops. In this case its gross margin is 28 percent, with 72 percent going to NTT. It believes that it will have to build out its own infrastructure to a greater expense to improve its business case.
It is not clear why KDDI will achieve its objective for FTTH subscriber growth over the next 12 months when it missed so badly in the last 12 months.
KDDI does not disclose its number of IPTV subscribers. My estimate is that that they have somewhat more that 100 thousand.
KDDI stated that its FTTH ARPU was quite flat at $45 per month. It also stated that it is under significant margin pressure where it uses unbundled NTT fiber loops. In this case its gross margin is 28 percent, with 72 percent going to NTT. It believes that it will have to build out its own infrastructure to a greater expense to improve its business case.
It is not clear why KDDI will achieve its objective for FTTH subscriber growth over the next 12 months when it missed so badly in the last 12 months.
KDDI does not disclose its number of IPTV subscribers. My estimate is that that they have somewhat more that 100 thousand.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Interview with Oki Electric about Japanese IPTV Market
I recently had an interview with Oki Electric in Japan. Oki has been active in the Japanese IPTV market supporting NTT’s various efforts. Oki explained to me that NTT has set up three separate IPTV services
- 4th MEDIA which offers broadcast and on demand content.
- OCN Theater which had only offered on demand content, but now is including broadcast content to its service.
- On Demand TV which offers broadcast content and on demand content.
Oki said that NTT has a plan to restructure its IPTV for NGN, the next-generation network. These separate services evolved this way due to separate efforts in NTT group companies as well as due to regulatory restrictions that have made it difficult for NTT to enter the IPTV market.
Oki provides video on demand servers to 4th MEDIA. Oki also provides middleware and content security systems to 4th Media.
Oki is also entering the IPTV set-top box market. It will start shipping an IPTV set-top box to trials in China before the end of 2007.
The IPTV market has been quite complex in Japan. NTT has had to take several approaches to overcome regulatory obstacles. It appears that this complexity may reduce over time.
Monday, July 23, 2007
KDDI Reaches 635,000 FTTH Subscribers
The number of subscribers to KDDI's Hikari-one FTTH service increased from 592 thousand to 635 thousand in the second calendar quarter of 2007, an increase of 43 thousand subscribers. KDDI acquired about 400 thousand FTTH subscribers from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in the first quarter of 2007. KDDI forecasts that it will have 900 thousand FTTH subscribers at the end of March 2008.
KDDI stated that its ARPU for a voice/data/IPTV bundle was $38/month during the quarter while the ARPU for a voice/data bundle was $28/month. Thus, the ARPU for adding the TV service to the bundle is $10 per month.
KDDI has experienced a moderate rate of growth of its FTTH service. It will have to accelerate its growth rate a bit to reach its 900 thousand goal for the fiscal year.
KDDI does not disclose its number of IPTV subscribers. My estimate is that about 15 percent of its FTTH subscribers take IPTV services, which means that it has about 90 thousand IPTV subscribers today.
KDDI stated that its ARPU for a voice/data/IPTV bundle was $38/month during the quarter while the ARPU for a voice/data bundle was $28/month. Thus, the ARPU for adding the TV service to the bundle is $10 per month.
KDDI has experienced a moderate rate of growth of its FTTH service. It will have to accelerate its growth rate a bit to reach its 900 thousand goal for the fiscal year.
KDDI does not disclose its number of IPTV subscribers. My estimate is that about 15 percent of its FTTH subscribers take IPTV services, which means that it has about 90 thousand IPTV subscribers today.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
J-Com Offering Docsis 3.0
J-Com, the cable company in Japan, will offer a 160 Mbps cable modem service based pre-Docsis 3.0 from Arris. This service will help it compete with the extensive FTTH services available from NTT and other Telcos in Japan.
Keep your eye on Docsis 3.0. If the U.S. cable companies broadly deploy 100 Mbps Docsis 3.0 services, the telco broadband services will be in trouble. ADSL will not be able to compete. Even VDSL will have a very tough time. Only Verizon's FiOS PON based service will be able to compete.
Keep your eye on Docsis 3.0. If the U.S. cable companies broadly deploy 100 Mbps Docsis 3.0 services, the telco broadband services will be in trouble. ADSL will not be able to compete. Even VDSL will have a very tough time. Only Verizon's FiOS PON based service will be able to compete.
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