President of NTT Sawada, the goodness of 5G for consumers is "It is difficult to realize unless Metaverse etc. spreads"
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11 comments 11President NTT Sawada, the goodness of 5G for consumers is an image of "It is difficult to realize unless Metaverse etc. spreads"
On February 7, 2022, NTT announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2021. Sales increased 2.1% year-on-year to ¥ 8,923.2 billion, and operating income increased 2.5% year-on-year to ¥ 1,539.6 billion. According to Jun Sawada, President and CEO, who took the stage at the financial results briefing held on the same day, the main reason for the strong performance is due to the strong performance of NTT DATA. Demand for digitization for domestic and overseas companies is rapidly expanding, and although the scale of each case is not large, "the number of high-margin projects such as DX (digital transformation) consulting is increasing rapidly" (Mr. Sawada). Seems to have been a factor in boosting sales and profits. Therefore, Mr. Sawada announced that he would revise the business forecast for 2021 upward. In essence, sales of 180 billion yen and operating income of 35 billion yen, which NTT DATA announced an upward revision of its business results, will be added as they are, but with regard to operating income, NTT Limited, which is in charge of overseas business, will be responsible for corona and semiconductors. It is said that he is struggling due to lack. With the addition of 15 billion yen to the structural reform operating profit, the company says it will only make an upward revision of 15 billion yen. In addition, it is said that the regional telecommunications business of NTT East and NTT West is performing well, but the demand for voice conference services that temporarily increased due to the Korona-ka has run its course, and the profits of the long-distance and international telecommunications business centered on NTT Communications have increased. He said he was depressed. However, it is the mobile communication business centered on NTT DoCoMo that is further pushing down profits, and the reason for this is that it continues to be greatly affected by the reduction in communication charges at the request of the government. Mobile communication service revenue decreased by 56.5 billion yen year-on-year due to the increase in the use of low-priced services such as "ahamo" and the significant reduction in voice wholesale charges when renting networks to MVNOs. It is said that the smart life area, which is also a growth field, is growing steadily, but DoCoMo's operating income is total due to factors such as price reductions, increased network maintenance costs due to increased investment in 5G, and the impact of the revision of the point accounting system. It is said that it decreased by 52.1 billion yen from the previous year. Regarding the number of ahamo contracts, Mr. Sawada said that he did not disclose it, but he answered that "it has reached the middle of 2 million", and it is said that it is still doing well. On the other hand, regarding the "Economy MVNO" that was newly launched in October 2021, "the provision was delayed, but the recognition is not sufficient," he said, showing that it is still sluggish. Mr. Sawada says that he hopes for future growth as he has been aggressively promoting since December 2021. In addition, DoCoMo started a carrier mail carrying service with "DoCoMo mail carrying" from December 2021, but Mr. Sawada said that carrier mail carrying "port-in and port-out (with number portability) has increased dramatically. There is no big difference if it is. " Although he has a certain number of uses, he does not seem to be used so often. However, Mr. Sawada said that the mobile phone charges have been drastically reduced due to a series of requests from the government, so "Given that it is already the cheapest in the world, I think the (price reduction) competition is taking a break." Answer. Perhaps because of this, DoCoMo's operating income is improving quarterly, and in the fourth quarter, it is expected that a significant improvement in income and expenditure can be expected by strengthening the corporate business and improving cost efficiency through the reorganization of DoCoMo. It is quite possible to achieve DoCoMo's annual plan, "says Mr. Sawada. However, since the prime minister was replaced by Fumio Kishida, attention has been increasing to the development of 5G areas. The government has set up a "digital rural city concept" and is demanding that mobile phone business companies expand 5G to rural areas as soon as possible. The government is demanding that the 5G population coverage rate be 90% by 2023, and is requesting mobile phone companies to accelerate the development, but Mr. Sawada is operating a non-stand-alone (NSA) for 5G area development. It is necessary to understand the difference in stand-alone (SA) operation. The current 5G network is an NSA operation that operates integrally with 4G, and can only demonstrate a part of the performance of 5G, but the network developed by SA operation can fully demonstrate the performance of 5G. According to Mr. Sawada, competitors show the penetration rate based on NSA, but DoCoMo has announced an area maintenance plan centered on SA, and you can experience not only the penetration rate of 5G but also its ability. He wants you to understand that there are differences in the quality of the network. Regarding services that promote the use of 5G, Mr. Sawada said, "The first goodness of 5G will come out in the enterprise. IoT and high-speed communication will be a structure that is easy to use for corporate DX", and it will be a corporation from 2022 to 2023. He said that the use of 5G in Japan will expand. On the other hand, regarding 5G utilization services for consumers, it will be difficult to realize unless services such as the transition to SA operation and Metaverse, which requires high performance of 5G, become widespread. It seems that it will take more time than for corporations. Mr. Sawada, who was asked about the approach to the Metaverse, said that in the short term, he has been promoting movements such as incorporating the elements of the Metaverse in one of the owned media "DOOR" from 2020, but it is more elaborate and realistic in the future. Since the amount of data to be processed in order to provide a strong service is enormous, it is recognized that "IOWN", which the company is promoting the concept, is indispensable for its realization. In addition, on February 1, DoCoMo had problems such as a communication failure when introducing the IPv6 single stack method, making it difficult for some users to make data communications and voice calls. On February 7, the same day as the announcement of financial results, the impact reached about 18,000 people, and the cause was "The load on the server temporarily increased when the IPv6 single stack method was introduced, and communication to the network. Because the signal to control the was sent to the terminal. " The communication failure that occurred in October 2021 was also caused by the introduction and migration of new services, but Mr. Sawada said that the previous failure had a problem in cooperation with cooperating companies, but this time "IPv6" There was not enough capacity for the part to read, "he explained, and there was a problem with the system's handling when the server capacity was insufficient and a delay occurred. Although the quality of the trouble is different from the previous one, DoCoMo wants to request measures to prevent recurrence by reviewing the network design in the deep part.
Last updated: CNET Japan
