Softbank Corp., owner of Japan's third-largest wireless carrier, added more users than its rivals in June for the second month in a row after offering the cheapest rates.
Softbank, which controls the least profitable of Japan's three largest mobile-phone operators, gained 204,800 subscribers last month, the company said Friday. Tokyo-based Softbank had 16.4 million customers at the end of June.
Billionaire Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son expanded Softbank's user base in Japan's 8.9 trillion yen wireless market by offering a monthly plan for as little as 980 yen. The company has pledged to offer the country's cheapest subscription to challenge NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp., whose combined market share exceeds 80 percent.
KDDI, the nation's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, added 133,200 users last month for a total of 28.7 million, while DoCoMo gained 88,800 customers, taking its total to 52.8 million.
DoCoMo started a service on May 25 that lets customers have a second phone number and e-mail address on one handset. The company said it had 66,800 subscribers to the service as of June 30, which was excluded from the total.