A consortium led by Softbank Corp said on Thursday it planned capital investment of around 250 billion yen ($2.1 billion) by 2015 to develop next-generation wireless Internet access if it gets a licence to supply the service.

Softbank is competing with groups led by rival mobile carriers NTT DoCoMo Inc and KDDI Corp (9433.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and also with handy-phone firm Willcom Inc, for two licenses to supply high-speed WiMAX connections.

Softbank has teamed up with ADSL provider eAccess Ltd (9427.T: Quote, Profile, Research) in its bid.

Japan