TOKYO (WiMAX Day). Japan’s WiMAX spectrum auction scene is anything but serene. Four license-seeking hopefuls are locked in a fierce competition over two licenses up for grabs. There’s only one month to go before the government’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry announces the two companies that will be granted licenses.

The four contenders are telecom heavyweights Softbank, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, and PHS (personal handyphone system) provider Willcom. The battle is over two 2.5 GHz band frequencies allowing WiMAX connections.

Educated rumors reported by Nikkei Net Interactive earlier this month said the government was likely to select KDDI and Willcom. A KDDI spokesperson said it was too soon in the application process to celebrate.

Softbank, meanwhile, is anything but tightlipped over its challengers. Softbank recently opened fire on competitors, claiming it is being forced to play with a loaded deck in the bidding process, according to Kyodo News. At a show-and-tell forum on November 22, Masayoshi Son, President of Softbank, cried foul over KDDI making two bids. He pointed out that Kyocera and KDDI are major shareholders in Willcom, and KDDI is also bidding for licenses in the Wireless Broadband Planning K.K. joint venture with Intel. “It would be wrong if entities belonging to the same capital group clinch both of the slots,” Son argued.

Kyocera was mentioned as it is a supplier and shareholder of KDDI. The web has more strands: In 2004, The Carlyle Group, a Washington DC-based private equity fund, acquired Willcom (then named DDI Pocket) from KDDI. The move catapulted KDDI into the investment news spotlight. It was the second biggest private-equity transaction in Japan, according to The Wall Street Journal. The distribution amounted to Carlyle Group (60%), Kyocera Corporation (30%), and KDDI Corporation (10%). The The Wall Street Journal also noted that Carlyle now may seek to dispose of its shares in a public offering, if Willcom is successful in the WiMAX license bid.

For all the speculation about KDDI and Willcom, Softbank is taking the offensive. A report in the Nikkei yesterday said Softbank “is ready to join forces with a rival team headed by NTT DoCoMo and Acca Networks in a bid to secure business licenses for next-generation mobile broadband services.”

President Masayoshi Son reportedly stated that Softbank and DoCoMo should combine their efforts to win the spectrum licenses, giving it a better chance over the two bids made by KDDI.

All the contenders for the Japanese WiMAX licenses profess similar goals: offering new wireless services in 2009; and providing services that will cover over 90% of Japan’s population in three to six years.