KDDI Corporation is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp., KDD Corp., and IDO Corp. It has its headquarters in the Garden Air Tower in Iidabashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. KDDI provides mobile cellular services using the "au by KDDI" brand. ISP network and solution 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 services are marketed. ADSL 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, 1.8Mbit/s. au by KDDI has been very successful with its EZ wireless data services, EZweb, EZweb@mail, EZappli, EZchakuuta, ezmovie, and EZnaviwalk, using the advanced WAP technology. It supports both Java ME and BREW application environments. In November 2004 au by KDDI introduced the music include ringtone download service Chaku Uta 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 are 3G CDMA2000 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 in New York with the Infobar, Talby and Neon models. Toshiba, Casio, Sanyo, Kyocera, Hitachi, Sony Ericsson, Sharp, and Panasonic 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 NetworkCDNetworks For $167 Million. KDDI together with Sumitomo Group signed an agreement with MyanmarState ownedMyanmar Post and Telecommunication in July 2014 to jointly operate a mobile phone service in Myanmar for next 10 years. Consumer showroom is set in Harajuku called, "KDDI Designing Studio". TU-KA, a subsidiary company of KDDI, was a 2G PDC cellular operator in three metropolitan areas, 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 has now been spun off as Willcom. In August 2014, KDDI announced it was joining forces with five other global companies, including Google to build a 60Tbit/s undersea data transmission cable linking the United States West Coast and Japan. The cable started operation in June 2016. KDDI and Ericsson 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.
