Astel Tokyo Corp., a Tokyo-based personal handy-phone system (PHS) company, selected Ken Kitazono, the former chairman of Tokyo Telemessage Inc., as its new president Friday amid continued difficulties to gain subscribers.
As a part of restructuring efforts, the company also reduced the number of board members from 17 to eight, Kitazono said. PHS companies are suffering from sluggish growth as competition in the industry intensifies and customers increasingly opt for mobile phones.
Astel Tokyo, in operation for two years, is suffering from accumulated losses that will total 90 billion yen at the end of March. Astel has some 615,400 subscribers, while rival DDI Tokyo Pocket Telephone Inc. has about 1.5 million. "Unless we obtain 1 million subscribers, we cannot start making profits," Kitazono said, adding that the company hopes to attain that goal within a few years.