According to The Japan Times, Japanese telecom operator KDDI announced the establishment of a WiMAX joint venture together with Intel and four other Japanese companies, which is envisaged to intensify the competition over the two 2.5GHz-based WiMAX licenses, to be issued by Japan's Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry by year-end 2007. The other four stakeholders in the WiMAX venture - named Wireless Broadband Planning K.K. - include Kyocera, Daiwa Securities, East Japan Railway, and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.