TD-CDMA coming to Japan

Looks like Japan's three cellphone carriers could be getting some competition from new entrants using the Chinese TD-CDMA format. There was a flurry of applications at the end of last year for experimental licenses, and the money seemingly is on Softbank as the company most likely to actually roll out a service. It's not clear at present whether it would offer data only, or voice as well.

TD-CDMA looks to offer a relatively inexpensive way of getting into the cellular business given that base stations are linked by an IP network; Softbank already has one of those through its Yahoo!BB ADSL service.

[Via various Nikkei and other media reports]