Japanese mobile carriers see gap between market share and satisfaction

A survey by MMD Research Institute regarding mobile network operator (MNO) satisfaction in Japan reveals a significant gap between market share and customer satisfaction. While NTT Docomo maintains the largest market share at 26.4%, it ranked last in overall satisfaction with 635 points out of 1000. Docomo also recorded the lowest Net Promoter Score (NPS) at -39.0, with 53.3% of users identified as “critics.”

In contrast, online-only plans led the satisfaction rankings. KDDI’s povo ranked first in both overall satisfaction (750 points) and NPS (-3.3), followed by SoftBank’s LINEMO in second place (731 points) and Rakuten Mobile in third (726 points).

The data shows that while major carriers like Docomo, au, and SoftBank dominate the main line market with approximately 60.7% share, online-only plans and sub-brands are increasingly utilized for secondary lines. For instance, povo’s usage is nearly four times higher as a secondary line (8.3%) compared to its main line usage (2.1%).