Japan mobile carriers apply for WiMAX licences

TOKYO : Japanese mobile carriers NTT DoCoMo Inc, Softbank Corp and KDDI Corp and their partners filed on Thursday for licences to supply high-speed wireless Internet access.

Along with handy-phone firm Willcom Inc, controlled by the Carlyle Group, the four groups are bidding for two 2.5 GHz band frequencies allowing WiMAX connections.

Regulators, who want to encourage new entrants, have capped existing mobile phone carriers' stakes in WiMAX ventures to one-third, forcing Japan's biggest carrier DoCoMo to partner with broadband service provider Acca Networks Co.

Softbank, Japan's smallest mobile phone operator, has teamed up with ADSL provider eAccess Ltd , where each firm would take a 32.4 percent stake in the venture. Other investors would include Goldman Sachs with 22.4 percent and Temasek Holdings with 11.7 percent.

Both Softbank and DoCoMo have also enlisted support from Internet firms NEC Biglobe, So-net Entertainment Corp, Nifty Corp and FreeBit Co Ltd.

No. 2 carrier KDDI has secured handset and components maker Kyocera Corp, East Japan Railway Co and Intel's venture capital firm Intel Capital, where each would take a 17.7 percent stake. Other investors are Daiwa Securities Group and Mitsubishi UFJ.