KDDI: Wi-Fi Offload to Reach 65%; LTE Capex Dropped by 50%

Joseph Waring reports to Mobile World Live that "Japanese operator KDDI’s push over the past year to boost WiFi offload has resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of data moved off macro sites as well as huge savings in wireless capex".

KDDI started with its offloading project more than 4 years ago, announcing its plan to deploy Ruckus' 120,000 Wi-Fi access points (here). They now have 3,000,000 access points. At the end of March 2015, KDDI had 43,478,000 mobile subscriptions. 

Fumio Watanabe [pictured], chairman of KDDI’s R&D Laboratories, spoke at BROADBAND ASIA, SINGAPORE and said that "WiFi offload was stuck at about 30 per cent three to four years ago when users faced frequent connection issues with WiFi and because flat-rate plans didn’t give them much incentive to use WiFi. 

It was only after the company distributed three million free WiFi access points that the percentage jumped from 30 per cent to 57 per cent .. We hit the 57 per cent target last fiscal year, which ended 31 March, and aim to expand the offload to 65 per cent this fiscal year, which will further reduce our LTE capex”.

Source: KDDI 2014 annual report 

Watanabe told Mobile World Live that "with more than half of its macro traffic offloaded to WiFi, its LTE capex has dropped by a similar percentage".

Source: KDDI 2014 annual report 

See "KDDI aims to offload 65% of mobile data to WiFi this year" - here.