(Associated Press via NewsEdge) KDDI raised its group earnings forecast for the current business year on the back of its 'au' mobile phone service's strong performance.
KDDI, which won the largest net gain in the number of subscribers among Japanese mobile phone operators in 2006, said it now expects to post a group pretax profit of 345 billion yen ($2.85 billion) for the year to March 31, up from 315 billion yen ($2.6 billion) projected in October.
The telecom carrier's revenue forecast for the full-year has been also upgraded to 3.3 trillion yen ($27 billion) from 3.2 trillion yen ($26.4 billion).
But KDDI, operator of Japan's No.2 mobile phone service brand, left its group net profit estimate of 186 billion yen ($1.5 billion) unchanged.
'Our business is continuing to see a favorable trend in the second half of this business year, mainly backed by the mobile communication segment,' KDDI president Tadashi Onodera said.
He pointed out that the segment's revenues rose 7.1% in the April-December period from a year earlier as it was able to attract many new customers after the launch in October of the number portability system, under which users can change operators without having to see their numbers changed.
During the October-December third quarter, the au brand secured a net gain of 484,000 subscriptions through the number portability system.
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