KDDI highlighted a gradual improvement in its mobile business in fiscal Q1 2024 (the period to end-June) and predicted a long-awaited recovery in revenue in the current quarter driven by updated unlimited plans.

In an earnings release, KDDI stated monthly data usage of au subscribers increased 25 per cent year-on-year.

Net profit attributable to the company dropped 7.9 per cent to JPY176.9 billion ($1.4 billion), attributed to lower roaming income from Rakuten Mobile and the impact of a one-off increase in finance income in fiscal Q1 2023.

Mobile service revenue declined 3.3 per cent to JPY388.9 billion, with multi-brand ARPU down 1.5 per cent to JPY3,930.

It noted the revenue decline was JPY2.9 billion, less than the JPY14.3 billon and JPY17 billion drops in the previous two quarters.

Handset sales fell 13.9 per cent to JPY147.4 billion.

The percentage of mobile subscribers on 5G plans increased from 39.4 per cent to 57.5 per cent.

Its total mobile user base rose 5.5 per cent to 65.1 million.

Enterprise sales grew 6.3 per cent to JPY281.3 billion and fixed-line was flat at JPY205 billion.

IoT connections increased 32.7 per cent to 34.5 million.

Capex was up 62.4 per cent as the operator earmarked an additional JPY50 billion for fiscal H1 2024 to virtualise its core network and deploy AI-based monitoring tools.