NTT Docomo forecast operating profit for fiscal 2021 (the year to end-March 2022) to remain flat due to marginal revenue growth, with its Smart Life and other new businesses to offset continued weakness in mobile.

The operator set a revenue target of JPY4.79 trillion ($43.7 billion), up 1.4 per cent year-on-year: telecoms is expected to remain flat, with an 8.7 per cent rise for Smart Life.

Docomo launched 5G services in late March 2020 and ended its recent fiscal year with 3.1 million subscribers. It aims to have 10 million by the end of fiscal 2021, offering a range of tiered data plans.

It plans to boost the number of 5G base stations from 7,100 to 20,000 sites, reaching 55 per cent population coverage and to start deploying a standalone network soon.

Operating revenue in fiscal Q4 2020 increased 6.8 per cent to JPY1.2 trillion mobile service grew 1.4 per cent to JPY688.7 billion and equipment sales were up 29.7 per cent at JPY155 billion.

Total mobile subscribers rose 3 per cent to 82.6 million and ARPU grew 1.4 per cent to JPY4,290.

Smart Life sales remained at JPY145.6 billion and other business including enterprise increased 7.8 per cent to JPY128 billion.

Net profit for fiscal 2020 grew 6.3 per cent to JPY629 billion.

Full-year capex was flat at JPY569.1 billion and is forecast to fall 3.4 per cent.