KDDI Corp. beat NTT DoCoMo Inc. in net subscription growth in November for the first time in two months, according to data released Tuesday by an industry group.
The number of subscriptions to KDDI's au cell phone service increased by 167,100 on a net basis -- new subscriptions minus cancellations -- to 18,517,400.
NTT DoCoMo scored a net increase of 135,000 to 47,666,800.
KDDI performed strongly partly because it introduced new handsets for the yearend shopping season ahead of the competition.
Vodafone K.K. brought the number of subscriptions to its service to 15,210,100 on a net rise of 9,900.