Japan's Communications Ministry has granted Willcom and a group led by KDDI licenses to operate next-gen wireless broadband services, according to a report from Nikkei. If the report proves true, the decision means rivals DoCoMo and Softbank would have to lease network capacity from the licensed companies. Japan's next-gen data services will launch in 2009 and give users high speed Internet connections of 20 megabits per second even while moving at 100 kilometers per hour. The KDDI group, which includes Kyocera, plans to launch WiMAX in the summer of 2009 through a JV with Intel, according to the report.

For more on the report:
- read this article from Thomson Financial