() is a Japanese
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
operator. It was established in 2000 through the merger of , , and . In 2001, it merged with a subsidiary named
Au, which was formed through the merger of seven automotive and mobile phone companies from the DDI-Cellular Group. As of 2020, it is the second-largest mobile telecommunications provider in Japan in terms of the number of contracts, following
NTT Docomo.
KDDI provides mobile cellular services using the Au brand. ISP network services are provided under the
au one net brand, while "au Hikari" is the name under which long-distance and international voice and data communications services and
Fiber to the Home
Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...
(FTTH) services are marketed.
ADSL
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over Copper wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...
broadband services carry the brand name "ADSL One", and IP telephony over copper is branded as "Metal Plus".
History
On April 1, 2002, au by KDDI launched
3G networks using
CDMA2000 1x technology.
On November 28, 2003, au by KDDI launched
EV-DO Rev 0 service in the "CDMA 1X WIN" brand, and revolutionized Japan's mobile telecommunication industry by introducing fixed rate data subscription plans at a data rate of 2.4 Mbit/s.
In December 2006, au by KDDI became the first carrier to provide an
EV-DO Rev A service at a data rate of 3.1Mbit/s (downlink), 1.8 Mbit/s (uplink).
au by KDDI has been very successful with its EZ wireless data services, EZweb, EZweb@mail, EZappli, EZchakuuta, ezmovie, and EZnaviwalk (
GPS), using the advanced
WAP technology. It supports both
Java ME
Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...
and
BREW application environments.
In November 2004 au by KDDI introduced the music include ringtone download service
Chaku Uta Full (music ringtone full), for download of full length songs to mobile phones. Within six months from introduction, on June 15, 2005, customers had downloaded 10 million full length
Chaku Uta Full songs.
As of end of June 2005, au by KDDI has 20,122,700 customers, among which 18,723,200 (93%) are
3G CDMA2000
CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatib ...
subscribers. It is Japan's second-largest cellular operator with an increasing 20.0% market share.
On January 26, 2006, the first pointing local search application, Mapion Local Search - Powered by
GeoVector, was launched on the KDDI network on their GPS and compass equipped handsets. In January 2007, KDDI announced its ten new 3G models for spring 2007, and a concept of its new designer phone Media Skin by
Tokujin Yoshioka which would later be displayed at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
in
New York with the Infobar, Talby and Neon models.
Toshiba
is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...
,
Casio
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...
,
Sanyo
is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...
,
Kyocera
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power genera ...
,
Hitachi
() is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...
,
Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc., originally Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, was a Multinational corporation, multinational consumer electronics and telecommunications company, best known for its Mobile phones, mobile phone products. The ...
,
Sharp, and
Panasonic
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...
have manufactured the other models. In March 2007, Media Skin started selling.
KDDI announced that it would collaborate with the Taiwanese manufacturer
HTC Corp. to sell the mobile phone
HTC J in Japan starting May 2012. The HTC J mobile phone featured the Android 4.0 operating system.
On October 21, 2011, KDDI buys Content Delivery Network
CDNetworks For $167 Million.
KDDI together with
Sumitomo Group
The is a Japanese corporate group and ''keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. In ...
signed an agreement with
Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...
State owned
Myanmar Post and Telecommunication (MPT) in July 2014 to jointly operate a mobile phone service in Myanmar for next 10 years.
Consumer showroom is set in
Harajuku
is a district in Shibuya, Tokyo. Harajuku is the common name given to a geographic area spreading from Harajuku Station to Omotesandō, Tokyo, Omotesando, corresponding on official maps of Shibuya, Tokyo, Shibuya ward as Jingūmae 1 Japanese a ...
called, "
KDDI Designing Studio".
TU-KA (TU-KA by KDDI), a subsidiary company of KDDI, was a 2G
PDC cellular operator in three metropolitan areas (Tokyo,
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
, and Osaka), which did not apply a 3G license. TU-KA was best known for having singer
Ayumi Hamasaki to appear in their commercials. TU-KA was closed on March 31, 2008.
DDI Pocket, a
PHS operator, was previously owned by KDDI but was spun off as
Willcom which is now incorporated into
Y!Mobile.
In August 2014, KDDI announced it was joining forces with five other global companies, including
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
to build a 60 Tbit/s undersea data transmission cable linking the United States West Coast and Japan.
The cable started operation in June 2016.
KDDI and
Ericsson
(), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...
began working together in December 2015 in order to research and develop
5G technology.
Lawsuits
In 2003, several class action complaints were filed against DDI for misrepresenting and/or failing to disclose material facts about the company's financial results. The parties agreed on a $4.4 million settlement in 2006.
[
]
See also
*
au
*
KDDI Mobile
*
G-Book, a
telematics
Telematics is an interdisciplinary field encompassing telecommunications, vehicular technologies (road transport, road safety, etc.), electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedia ...
service provided by Toyota in Japan only
*
KDDI India Private Limited
*
List of telephone operating companies
This list identifies the largest telecommunications companies by total revenue. For a more thorough list, see the By region section.
By total revenue
''Note: Numbers of total revenues of most telephone operating companies are sourced from Fo ...
References and footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kddi
Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Companies in the Nikkei 225
Japanese brands
Japanese companies established in 1953
Japanese companies established in 1984
Mobile phone companies of Japan
Telecommunications companies based in Tokyo
Telecommunications companies established in 1953
Telecommunications companies established in 1984