Telecom Industry Post Covid 19:Impact Japan

When we talk about the impact of Covid 19 on Telecom Industry, one country always comes to our mind is Japan and its Industries. Telecom is one among the top verticals that always decides the major revenue contributor an Economy and hence Japan is not an exception. In recent past I attended some of leading seminars in Japan on Telecom Industry and trends. In most of the seminars I could observe that Covid 19 has impacted Telecom Industries in many ways.Also, despite challenges brought on by the pandemic, ongoing war and unpredictable markets, the world’s largest public companies managed to boost sales and profits in the last year.

Some of the observations surrounds Japanese manufacturers who have also established a?presence in the hardware production segment, with many electronic components produced in Japan being used in world-renowned, high-end smartphones and other devices. If you look at the range of such high value-added products manufactured in Japan that includes sensors, camera components, and connectors for telecommunication parts and devices, etc. Going forward, these products are expected to demonstrate their supremacy in the IoT market, where growth is expected.

Going forward some of the observations on the top three leading telecoms carriers in Japan are NTT Group, KDDI Group, and SoftBank Group (while Rakuten Mobile also has a presence) and they handle fixed-line and mobile voice-calling services, and constantly competing for customers. In past data (as of end-2016), the total number of mobile voice-calling contracts was approximately 160.71 million contracts;?breaking it down, NTT DoCoMo led with 73.59 million contracts, followed by au at 47.83 million contracts, and SoftBank (including Y!mobile) at 39.29 million contracts. In terms of market shares, NTT Group was ranked top with a?share of 45.8%, followed by KDDI Group and SoftBank Group at 29.8% and 24.4%, respectively. The importance of such such data becomes more vulnerable when its being compared with datas post Pandemic.

On the other hand some of the observation on mobile broadband subscriber growth is expected to be relatively low over the next five years, partly due to the high existing penetration though growth has been stimulated by measures which have encouraged people to school and work from home. There has also been a boost in accessing entertainment via mobile devices since 2020.

On the consumer side, spending on telecoms services and devices is under pressure from the financial effect of large-scale job losses and the consequent restriction on disposable incomes post Covid. However, the crucial nature of telecom services, both for general communication as well as a tool for home-working, will offset such pressures. In many markets the net effect should be a steady though reduced increased in subscriber growth.

Although it is challenging to predict and interpret the long-term impacts of the crisis as it develops, these have been acknowledged in the seminars. Hope Japanese Telecom Industry will show upward trend in their growth journey and will keep guiding Global market with their capacity enhancements and inclusion of Technology Innovations.