Japan decides to award new licenses to Willcom and KDDI.(JAPAN)

Asia Pacific Telecom, January, 2008

Japan's telecom regulator plans to award licenses for high-speed wireless Internet to Carlyle-controlled handyphone firm Willcom Inc. and a consortium backed by cellphone giant KDDI Corp., according to the Nikkei business daily. The two companies have been battling it out with mobile operators NTT DoCoMo Inc.

(Research) and Softbank Corp. for the WiMAX licenses. WiMAX services enable users on the go to access speedy Internet on laptops and other devices. The report said that Softbank and DoCoMo are expected to lease networks from the licensed companies. KDDI spokeswoman Maki Sato affirmed that the telecom giant would spend $1.3 billion on this project by the end of 2013, but she refused to confirm the development. Additionally, a communications ministry official...

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