KDDI, Japan’s number two cellular carrier, will receive one of two WiMax licenses to be awarded soon by the Japanese government, a report said Tuesday.
The KDDI group, called Wireless Broadband Planning, and one led by rival carrier Willcom will be recommended by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday to a panel charged with selecting the groups to win the licenses, reports Reuters. The panel is expected to follow the ministry’s recommendations.
Intel owns a 17.65 percent stake in KDDI’s Wireless Broadband Planning group. The stake is matched by East Japan Railway and Kyocera, and all three sit behind leading shareholder KDDI, which has a 32.26 percent stake.
The WiMax services will operate in the 2.5GHz band and will be capable of providing data service at up to 20Mbps to terminals travelling at up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the Japanese government.
Japan’s cell phone carriers have been testing WiMax for some time. It will likely mean that cellphone leader NTT DoCoMo and third-ranked Softbank probably will have to lease networks from KDDI or Willcom if they are to offer competing services.
KDDI, Japan’s number two cellular carrier, had 29 million subscriptions to its CDMA2000 cell phone service at the end of November this year. Willcom, which uses the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology to offer a data-centric service, had 4.6 million subscriptions.
KDDI Mobile is a mobile phone service operated in the United States to meet the needs of Japanese people living in the United States. The company operates on the Sprint network as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. KDDI is preparing to launch an ambitious U.S. wireless service. The venture, X/S PCS Mobile, hopes to draw customers with free calling to 25 countries at a flat monthly rate.
NTT DoCoMo is the largest mobile carrier in Japan with 53 million subscriptions, while Softbank, the third largest, had 17.4 million subscriptions. Both carriers operate WCDMA (GSM-based 3G) networks.
The Mobile WiMAX service in Japan is expected to start in 2009.
Meanwhile, Apple has been in talks with several Japanese mobile service companies, including NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile, as it searches for a partner before introducing the iPhone, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters today.
In other WiMAX news:
- Motorola and Wateen Telecom have teamed up to bring the “first 802.16e commercial WiMAX network” to 22 Pakistani cities, with more cities presumably slated to get the WiMAX goods sometime in the near future.
- Intel and Russia’s Comstar announced plans for a nationwide mobile WiMax network in Russia, starting with a citywide network in Moscow planned for launch in late 2008. Dmitry Konash, Regional Manager of Intel in the CIS, commented: “The strategic collaboration with one of Russia’s telecom leaders, Comstar UTS, ensures that WiMAX will be successfully developed in Russia. According to our agreement, our companies will work together to implement the joint marketing programmes to develop mobile WiMAX-based solutions not only in Moscow, but also in other cities and regions of Russia.”
- Ofcom released further details on its planned release of UK radio spectrum between 2010-2025 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz. Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said would be, “The UK’s largest single release of spectrum suitable for a range of new wireless services including WiMax.” Ofcom expects to auction the frequencies in the summer of 2008.
- The UK’s Milton Keynes will get the first commercial Wimax network in the UK. ConnectMK joined forces with Freedom4, a joint venture between Pipex and Intel Capital, to offer the service. More than 1,000 people in Milton Keynes have registered interest in joining the Wimax network, said the partners.
