NTT DoCoMo Trials Homegrown 5G RAN

NTT DoCoMo says it has successfully completed trials of 5G network equipment in Thailand and Singapore. The Japanese-made gear was provided in a series of trials designed to elevate DoCoMo’s insights into the unique 5G requirements of global operators, including regional regulatory approvals, trading procedures, and compatibility with existing network equipment. NTT DoCoMo says it has successfully completed trials of 5G network equipment in Thailand and Singapore. The Japanese-made gear was provided in a series of trials designed to elevate DoCoMo’s insights into the unique 5G requirements of global operators, including regional regulatory approvals, trading procedures, and compatibility with existing network equipment. The Japanese operator partnered with Denki Kogyo Co. Ltd. and Advanced Info Service (AIS) in Thailand to measure reception intensity and consistency with local network equipment. The trials were held on Sept. 25 and Dec. 18 at AIS’ 5G trial environment using Denki Kogyo’s metamaterial reflectarray antenna for 5G radio-wave reception tests, according to DoCoMo. The company also partnered with AGC Inc. and StarHub in Singapore to test a “glass-embedded antenna” that was jointly developed by DoCoMo and AGC. Network operator StarHub initiated the trial on Dec. 4 and successfully confirmed that the antenna can be embedded on windows of buildings to provide mobile coverage in urban areas, according to DoCoMo. The company says it will present more findings from the trials during an exhibition in Tokyo next month. DoCoMo has been striving to develop new areas of business since late 2015 by developing equipment for mobile networks in other countries and consulting operators via network assessments, new technology requirements, and opportunities for improved customer support. “DoCoMo is committed to collaborating with global companies by leveraging its mobile network technologies and expertise for the creation and delivery of innovative solutions that provide new value and meet important needs in global society,” the company wrote in a prepared statement. Japan has a long history of designing and building its own radio access network (RAN) equipment for domestic operators, but the push into foreign markets is relatively new. NEC Corp. has deals with multiple Japanese operators to manufacture 5G base stations, including DoCoMo and Rakuten Mobile, a subsidiary of the e-commerce juggernaut that plans to deploy a greenfield, fully virtualized, software-defined mobile network in Japan. NEC’s partnership with Rakuten calls for the companies to jointly develop a 3.7 GHz massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) 5G radio. Rakuten Mobile CTO Tareq Amin described the partnership as an effort to expand the development of Japanese-made RAN equipment that will also deliver the “world’s first 5G open RAN architecture here in Japan.” DoCoMo did not provide any details about the spectrum bands or specialized components of the equipment used in the recent trials in Thailand and Singapore. DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank, and Rakuten have all committed to build nationwide 5G networks by 2022 with initial services slated to go live in 2020 prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The four companies are expected to invest $14.4 billion in the networks during the next five years, and DoCoMo will lead the way with an investment of $7.1 billion.