(Corrects handset shipments target in last paragraph of story originally published on Oct. 30.)

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile-phone operator, said second-quarter net income fell 21 percent from a year earlier as it cut data-transmission charges. The company projected a drop in annual handset shipments.

Net income declined to 137.3 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, from 173.1 billion yen a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement today. DoCoMo maintained its annual forecast for operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, at 830 billion yen.

The carrier and Softbank Corp. and KDDI Corp. are offering cheaper plans to encourage data use as revenue from voice traffic declines. DoCoMo in August cut its basic monthly flat- rate plan tariffs 20 percent to attract users and help achieve its annual target of shipping 1 million handsets capable of surfing the Internet and downloading music, videos and software.

Operating profit fell 17 percent to 233.4 billion yen in the quarter as revenue declined 3.4 percent to 1.06 trillion yen, the company said. That compared with the 214.6 billion yen operating profit on 1.09 trillion yen in sales estimated by Credit Suisse AG.

DoCoMo fell 0.5 percent to close at 131,900 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before earnings were reported. The stock has lost 25 percent this year, compared with a 13 percent gain by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average in the period.

The carrier cut its target for handset shipments in the year to March 31 to 18.2 million, from the 19.7 million projected earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 8, 2009 21:20 EST