Japanese communications provider Softbank reported net sales of JPY 4.27 trillion for the six months ended 30 September 2016, which represents a decrease of 0.2 percent year-on-year. This resulted from erosion of sales at US operator Sprint and the handset distribution segment due to the yen’s appreciation year on year, despite increases in sales at the Japan telecommunications segment and Yahoo Japan, the company said. Net income amounted to JPY 800.9 billion, an increase of 57.5 percent year-on-year.
Operating income totaled JPY 653.9 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent year-on-year. This was due to increases in income of JPY 39.9 billion in the Domestic Telecommunications segment, JPY 23.1 billion in the Sprint segment, and JPY 10.1 billion in the Distribution segment, which outweighed a decline in income of JPY 51.5 billion in the Yahoo Japan segment.
The Domestic Telecommunications segment ended September with 32.3 million subscribers of mobile communications services, following 263,000 net additions from the previous fiscal year-end. Smartphones and tablets marked net additions, which outweighed net losses for feature phones and mobile data communications devices. In particular, the number of subscribers for Y!mobile smartphones grew briskly, Softbank said.
The cumulative number of applications of the Home Bundle Discount Hikari Set at the end of the second quarter stood at 4.4 million for mobile communications services, up 1.4 million from the previous fiscal year-end, and 2.1 million for broadband services, up 720,000. The total number of subscribers for broadband services at the end of the second quarter stood at 5.6 million, a 521,000 increase from six months earlier. This was mainly due to an increase of 982,000 subscribers for SoftBank Hikari. On the other hand, Yahoo! BB hikari with FLET’S decreased by 367,000 and subscribers for Yahoo! BB ADSL decreased by 94,000.
Sprint had 60.1 million subscribers at the end of the second quarter, a net addition of 1.3 million from the previous fiscal year-end. The cumulative number of subscribers at the end of the second quarter includes the impact from the Shentel transaction. Excluding the impact from the Shentel Transaction, Sprint platform net additions during the period came to 1.1 million. This represented postpaid net additions of 524,000 and wholesale and affiliate net additions of 1.3 million, outweighing prepaid net losses of 758,000.
