Japan communications ministry has approved four mobile operators - NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Softbank Mobile, and eMobile, - for LTE services using 1.5 GHz spectrum.

NTT DoCoMo plans to invest $3.4 billion (343 billion yen) in its LTE network over the next five and plans to launch its commercial service in the mid of 2010 following global LTE Standard.

KDDI plans to invest $5.2 billion (515 billion yen) in its CDMA network upgrade and plans to launch its commercial service at the end of 2011.

Softbank Mobile plans to invest $2.1 billion (207 billion yen) in its HSDPA network upgrade and plans to launch its commercial service in the first quarter of 2011.

eMobile plans to invest $0.6 billion (64 billion yen) for data only LTE network and plans to launch its commercial service in September of 2010.

Ref. TechIPm, LLC