This IDC study (a translation of the Japanese document IDC #J11030107) analyzes the competiveness of major carriers and the issues they face in the solutions and managed market, where future growth is expected based on their financial performance and appraisals by user companies. With the financial crisis behind them, four out of the major six carriers marked positive growth in the March 2011 term. For the March 2012 term, despite contracts getting postponed due to impact from the recent disaster, the market will be driven by cloud services and external demand for managed services.

"It has become difficult for Japan carriers to differentiate themselves with networks alone. However, networks connecting datacenters and cloud services still have a huge room to evolve. Carriers should make themselves more competitive by reducing operation costs and improving service flexibility with network virtualization technologies. IDC believes that, in order for Japan carriers to attract MNCs, they should strengthen their portal strategies. Portals can improve their visibility, help them provide better service delivery systems, and continuously foster relationships between HQ and local IS departments," says Akiko Kawakami, research manager, Communications, IDC Japan.