5G - MOBILE SERVICES

Japan looking to launch 5G mobile service

The Japanese communications ministry(Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication) has developed plans to support domestic companies in order to launch 5G mobile service in 2020.

                                                              

The communication ministry will meet with private-sector companies this year to discuss development of 5G technologies. NTT Docomo, KDDI, and SoftBank, the three biggest carries in Japan, are expected to participate, as are Panasonic, Sharp, and Fujitsu, manufacturers of handsets and base stations. Docomo has already started conducting R&D in 5G.

According to the ministry plan, 5G is set to be approximately 100 times faster than LTE, most commonly used in Japan right now, and ten times faster than 4G. Carriers will begin offering 4G service around 2016 using spectrum, which will be allocated later this year.

The development is expected to assist with the deployment of next generation video services streaming in super high resolution 4K and 8K. 4K programming broadcasts will begin next month, and 8K broadcasts are expected to begin in 2016 and will require significant amounts of bandwidth.

Europe, China, South Korea and other countries are also rushing to commercialise 5G technologies – key problems remain interference and ensuring consistent performance delivery of large amounts of data. No nation has decided with standard to adopt as of yet.