Docomo to launch 5G trial environments

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NTT Docomo Inc has announced that from May or later in 2017, it will commence delivery of trial environments for 5G mobile communications in Japan, working in conjunction with various partners in industries such as automobiles, railways and broadcasting.

The 5G trial sites, which will enable customers to experience services and content leveraging 5G technology, will be the latest step toward a commercial 5G system that Docomo expects to launch in 2020.

The initial sites will be offered mainly in two districts of Tokyo, the Odaiba waterfront and Tokyo Skytree Town. The sites will leverage the 5G radio network expertise of Ericsson and the 5G client leadership of Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer. For communications, Docomo plans to utilize the 28GHz frequency band, one of the candidate bands that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is considering to designate for commercial 5G networks in Japan.

5G is a much anticipated mobile communications technology that will address the expected explosion in the number of mobile devices and the massive increase in network traffic in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) era. 5G boasts ultra-high-speed data rates beyond 10Gbps, excess capacity, extra-low latency and greatly expanded connectivity compared to existing mobile communications systems.

Docomo said it expects to expand the scope of the trials later by collaborating with other network engineering firms and chip vendors, and also by utilizing the additional 4.5GHz candidate band.

Docomo will provide an overview of the 5G trial sites during Docomo R&D Open House 2016, which will take place at the Docomo R&D Center in the Yokosuka Research Park near Yokohama on November 17 and 18.