Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to trial 5G with Ericsson

8 May 2014

Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo is to trial 5G technology capable of achieving ultra-high data rates of 10Gbps using the 15GHz frequency band.

As the operator continues to expand its LTE networks, it is already preparing for the 5G evolution of the user experience and new M2M applications.

With the Ericsson 5G trial system, NTT DoCoMo plans to achieve ultra-high bit rates of more than 10Gbps, delivering radio network capability of more than 1,000 times of today’s LTE networks.

“The 5G studies are starting to gain real momentum as we point toward 2020,” said Seizo Onoe, chief technology officer at NTT DoCoMo.

“We appreciate that 5G will provide significant performance enhancements to support future new applications that will impact both users and industry. We look forward to showing the potential of 5G radio access technologies via this experimental trial.”

Ericsson has developed advanced antenna technologies with wider bandwidths, higher frequencies and shorter transmission time intervals, as well as radio base stations built with baseband units and radio units developed specifically for the 5G trial.

“5G will be a key component in the industry’s movement toward the networked society,” said Ulf Ewaldsson, CTO of Ericsson.

“I’m excited about the new technologies that we are exploring in the joint trial collaboration with NTT DoCoMo. This is an important step in the industry transformation we are experiencing.”

Tokyo image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com