NTT DoCoMo's annual profit falls 3.9 percent

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's top mobile phone carrier, said Tuesday its annual net profit slipped 3.9 percent to 471.9 billion yen ($4.9 billion) as the recession hit sales of handsets.

The company sold 20 million handsets during the fiscal year ended March 31, down 21.8 percent year-on-year as more consumers opted to keep their old handsets during tough economic times.

Japan's economy, the world's second-largest, is mired in its deepest recession since World War II.

DoCoMo's revenue fell 5.6 percent to 4.4 trillion yen, while operating profit rose 2.8 percent to 831 billion yen.

DoCoMo holds a 50 percent share of Japan's massive mobile phone market. But rivals KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp. have been aggressively attracting customers with lower fees.

DoCoMo had 54.6 million subscribers as of March, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.

For the current financial year to March 2010, DoCoMo expects net profit of 493 billion yen, operating profit of 830 billion yen. Revenue is seen at 4.4 trillion yen.

Its earnings are based on U.S. accounting standards.

Shares of DoCoMo rose 0.5 percent to 135,100 yen although the Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 2.7 percent to 8,493.77 Tuesday on a rising yen and growing uncertainty about the impact of swine flu on the global economy.