TOKYO-Japan hopes to stoke competition in its hard-to-penetrate mobile-phone market by allowing three new entrants to offer wireless services.
The country’s telecommunications ministry opened the door for Softbank Corp., eAccess Ltd. and IPMobile Inc. to introduce new wireless handsets and services. The new players will vie for market share against existing operators NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Vodafone Group Plc’s Japanese unit.
The decision, which was widely expected, marks the first time in 12 years Japan has opened bandwidth to new carriers.
High-speed Internet service providers Softbank and eAccess, which are traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, plan to build networks on the 1.7 GHz band, while privately held IPMobile will occupy the 2 GHz range. Shares of eAccess and Softbank rose on the news.
IPMobile said it will enter the market using TD-CDMA (also known as UMTS TDD), a 3G IMT-2000 technology. Specifically, IPMobile said it will build networks in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka by October, with nationwide coverage up and running by 2012. The company plans to offer flat-rate data services with downlink speeds up to 5.2Mbps and uplink speeds up to 858Kpbs. The company plans to roll out 3,000 base stations by 2007, and 8,500 base stations by 2012.
The company said it will operate the network under a mobile virtual network operator business model.
IPMobile, which has trailed technology with the likes of T-Mobile in Europe and Sprint Nextel Corp. in the United States, said TD-CDMA will create a “mobile data communications market” in Japan.
The new 3G licenses in Japan are likely good news for Japanese wireless users, who pay the world’s highest prices for mobile-phone services. And the opportunity could be a boon for Softbank, which earlier today reported a 41-percent drop in third-quarter revenue due to losses in its fixed-line phone business.
The new entrants hope to lower prices for voice services by using less expensive, foreign-made equipment. The new licenses are pending approval from Japanese regulatory agencies.
