Japanese telecom operator NTT Docomo on Friday announced its LTE strategies and Capex for fiscal 2014.

NTT Docomo Capex for fiscal 2014 will be lowered 13 percent to $6.75 billion (690 billion yen) from $703 billion in fiscal 2013. Out of $6.75 billion, $4.55 billion will be invested for LTE roll outs during the current fiscal, NTT Docomo said. In fiscal 2013, the telecoms invested $3.8 billion in LTE 4G.

In fiscal 2013, Capex decreased by 50.5 billion yen and reached 703.1 billion yen.

The company, which is exiting from its joint venture in India with Tata Teleservices (TTSL) after investing $2.6 billion, has expanded its LTE base stations to 55,300 in fiscal 2014 from 24,400. NTT Docomo plans 95,300 LTE base stations in fiscal 2015.

NTT Docomo said the company will be expanding its LTE base stations with 100 Mbps capability to 40,000 this fiscal from 3,500 during the last fiscal. NTT Docomo is also planning 225 Mbps base stations this year and LTE Advanced in 2015.

The Japanese conglomerate is also working on 5G roll outs to offer 10Gbps broadband connectivity.

Kaoru Kato, president & CEO, NTT Docomo, during an analyst call, said: “We want to aim at 5G. We are the – the development is in progress, we are aiming for a 10 gigabit or 10 gigabyte, this might take a little bit more time but we’re now getting into the territory of gigabyte. So with this technical capacity we hope to create dominantly strong network for Docomo.”

The company is ramping up LTE 4G investments at a time when it is facing huge pressure in the voice market. NTT Docomo said its voice revenue has decreased by 80.3 billion yen, while packet revenue has increased by 121 billion yen.

“We now have 24.35 million smartphone users and LTE users account for 79 percent of the total smartphone users. Smartphone users increased 30 percent and LTE subscribers account for 80 percent of the total,” Kato added.

Baburajan K
[email protected]