The number of subscriptions to mobile phone services in Japan topped 80 million in January for the first time, the Telecommunications Carriers Association said Friday.
The number of subscriptions totaled 80,128,800 at the end of the month, up 0.4 percent from a month earlier, according to the association, which groups telecommunications-related businesses.
The latest data mean that cell phones are used by 62.8 percent of Japan's population.
The combined number of subscribers to mobile phones and personal handy-phone systems exceeded 80 million in March last year.
In the mobile phone market, KDDI Corp.'s au service, which led other cell phone operators in net growth of subscriber numbers in 2003, maintained this position in January, chalking up a net gain of 232,000 to a total of 16,209,300.
Vodafone K.K., renamed from J-Phone Co. on Oct. 1, followed with a net increase of 64,100 to 14,838,100.
NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's biggest mobile phone service provider, had 45,429,600 subscribers, following a net increase of 63,700 in the month under review.
The Tu-Ka group incurred a net decrease of 18,300 to 3,651,800.