NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. posted 3.1 trillion yen in consolidated sales in the business year that ended March 31, up 18.7 percent from the previous year, due to an increase in cellular phone subscribers.

NTT DoCoMo's pretax profit grew 12.4 percent to 350.3 billion yen. Its net profit increased 69.8 percent to 204.8 billion yen despite December's absorption of nine NTT Personal group companies engaged in the unprofitable personal handy phone business.

The number of cellular phone and car phone subscribers at NTT DoCoMo increased 5.9 million, or 32.9 percent, to 23.9 million at the end of the business year.

The country's largest mobile phone carrier expects the number of subscribers will increase 4.7 million in the current business year ending March 2000, and it hopes to maintain its current market share of 57.7 percent, the carrier's official said.

Although the number of paging service subscribers declined 46 percent to 2.1 million due to an increasing number of cellular and personal handy phone users, the carrier hopes to reverse the trend in the current business year by increasing the variety of information services carried by pagers, the official said.

The carrier hopes to increase data transmission services over mobile phones and prepare for launching next-generation mobile phone services in March 2001, the official said.