Japanese carriers prepare for number portability

Japanese carriers want to make sure they did everything to keep customers from fleeing to rivals when the number portability law kicks in November this year. First, they increased the handset subsidies. And now they are improving the floor space of their shops in order to improve shopping experience for customers and put emphasis on their brands.

DoCoMo stated it would open 60 renovated shops with bigger floor space and improved internal design before June 2006. Every shop will require approximately 20-30 million yen ($172,000-$259,000) for a revamp, half paid by DoCoMo and another half covered by the shop operator.

Vodafone in its turn announced the company would average up the number of its specialized kiosks to 2,000 locations to come up to DoCoMo and KDDI au.