Japanese carrier conducts 5G trial in actual-use environments

Japan's leading wireless carrier announced on Thursday that it has for the first time made a successful trial of 5G data transmission in a commercial complex, part of efforts for its commercial launch by 2020.

NTT DOCOMO INC. said the trial it conducted with Nokia Networks at the Roppongi Hills high-rise complex in Tokyo on October 13 achieved ultra-high-speed data transmission in excess of 2Gbps, Xinhua news agency reported.

The trial used millimetre-wavelength signals with an extremely high frequency of 70GHz, a key development for the eventual commercial use of 5G wireless technology in actual-use environments, said the Japanese mobile service provider in a release.

"To date, no test had achieved a 5G data transmission in a commercial complex, such as a shopping mall, due to problems with base stations being out of line of sight and diffused reflections causing the attenuation of highly directional millimetre signals," said DOCOMO.

"This time, however, the trial was successful thanks to the use of two new technologies: beam-forming, which focuses radio waves in a specific direction, and beam-tracking to control beam-direction according to the mobile device's location," it said.

DOCOMO has been collaborating directly with a number of vendors in trials and development of 5G mobile communication technologies since May 2014, including Samsung Electronics, Ericsson, Fujitsu and Huawei Technologies.

Serving over 68 million mobile customers in Japan, DOCOMO plans to deploy 5G network by 2020, said the release.