KDDI Corp. announced earnings results for second quarter ended September 2009. For the quarter, the company reported net earnings of ¥58.87 billion (640 million), down from ¥78.66 billion in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 0.9% to ¥869.36 billion as the company introduced discount packages to attract new subscribers. the company reported that net profit fell from a year earlier due to strong price competition. The company maintained its earlier forecast for a 14.5% rise in net profit to ¥255 billion in the year to March 2010, on revenue of ¥3.48 trillion.

KDDI Corp. reported earnings results for the six months ended September 2009. For the period, the company reported net profit of ¥145,292 million, down 3.9% from a year earlier, and operating profit of ¥250,982 million, down 4.5%, Operating revenue declined 1.4% to ¥1,723,086 million. For the year to March 2010, the company will pay an annual dividend of ¥12,000 per share, up from its previously planned ¥11,000. The company will book impairment losses of ¥40 billion for fourth quarter ended March 2010 from the scrapping of unused facilities.

KDDI Corp. plans to launch a wireless data communications service that will let customers access both mobile phone and WiMAX networks, the Nikkei business daily reports. The company plans to sell four types of devices, manufactured by Hitachi, which can access its 3G mobile phone and WiMAX networks, with the first of them expected to hit the market in December. Users will be able to choose between paying a flat monthly fee and usage-based charges. The flat-monthly-fee plan is expected to cost users around ¥5,000 ($56) to ¥6,000. Compared with data communications services based on mobile phones, WiMAX wireless broadband services offer faster speeds but much smaller service areas. KDDI will enable customers to use WiMAX whenever it is available thus giving them the benefit of faster communications and switch to the 3G mobile network if WiMAX is not accessible.