TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's dominant mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc said it lost 40,800 subscribers on a net basis in November, as users switched to Softbank Corp and KDDI Corp to grab an Apple Inc iPhone 5 supplied in Japan by the two smaller carriers.

NTT Docomo said it was the first drop in the number of users in over five years, and its biggest user decline on record.

The number of Softbank's subscribers grew by 301,900, with the upstart carrier winning the most users on a net basis for the 11th straight month. The number of KDDI's users grew by 228,800.

(Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)