May 8, 2014

DOCOMO to Conduct 5G Experimental Trials with World-leading Mobile Technology Vendors

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R&D

TOKYO, JAPAN, May 8, 2014 --- NTT DOCOMO, INC., a personalized mobile solutions provider for smarter living, announced today that it will conduct experimental trials of emerging 5G mobile communications technologies with six world-leading mobile technology vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung.

The parallel collaborations between DOCOMO and each of the six vendors will involve experimental trials to confirm the potential of 5G mobile technologies to exploit frequency bands above 6GHz and realize very high system capacity per unit area, and new radio technologies to support diverse types of applications including machine-to-machine (M2M) services. DOCOMO also expects to collaborate with other companies in its effort to test a wide range of 5G mobile technologies.

5G is a new-generation cellular system targeted at commercial deployment in 2020. The new system is expected to enable ultra-high-speed data transmissions at more than 10Gbps, 1,000-fold the capacity of existing LTE networks, as well as connectivity for massive numbers of devices to support the ever-expanding market of M2M services.

"5G studies are starting to gain real momentum as we point toward 2020," said Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer at DOCOMO. "I am delighted that we will collaborate on 5G experimental trials with multiple global vendors from this early stage."

DOCOMO will begin indoor trials at the DOCOMO R&D Center in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture this year, to be followed by outdoor field trials planned for next year. Key findings and achievements will be shared with research institutes and at international conferences to contribute to 5G standardization, which is expected to start from 2016. Key findings also will be utilized for research aimed at incubating future advanced technologies.

DOCOMO, a world leader in mobile technology research, started studies on 5G requirements, concept and technologies as early as 2010. Going forward, DOCOMO will continue to actively research 5G to further contribute to the technical advancement and global proliferation of mobile communications.

Partner Quotes

Alcatel-Lucent

Marcus Weldon, President of Bell Labs & CTO, Alcatel-Lucent, said: "We are excited by the cooperation with DOCOMO. Our vision is that 5G systems will adapt to the user's needs to create the 'network of you' and a new flexible air interface will be a key element. This air interface will couple to a flexible network infrastructure that takes full benefit from network virtualization and software-defined networking."

Ericsson

Ulf Ewaldsson, Senior Vice President and CTO of Ericsson, said: "I'm excited about the new technologies that we are exploring in the joint trial collaboration with DOCOMO. The technologies have the potential of being key components in the industry's movement towards networked society and 5G. The collaboration with DOCOMO is an important step towards that vision."

Fujitsu

Hideyuki Saso, President of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and Director of Fujitsu Limited, said: "We are very pleased to be able to build a cooperative partnership with DOCOMO toward the realization of 5G, the next generation of mobile communications technology. As social infrastructure, 5G is of paramount importance to the future development and growth of society, and we see it as an essential platform for realizing our vision of a Human Centric Intelligent Society. Through experimental trials with DOCOMO, we intend to verify 5G and, going forward, contribute further to society by driving the development of IoT and Big Data."

NEC

Shunichiro Tejima, Executive Vice President of NEC, said: "NEC is delighted to collaborate on this trial with DOCOMO for 5G mobile communication technology. We are confident that NEC will contribute to the early establishment of 5G technology by leveraging our Small Cell and SDN technology and know-how."

Nokia

"Expanding our cooperation with DOCOMO on 5G radio technology is an important step towards defining future mobile networks," said Hossein Moiin, Chief Technology Officer, Networks business at Nokia. "Future wireless networks will interconnect not just humans but also machines and objects, creating a vibrant overlay of virtual and physical worlds with a huge variety of use cases. Together with the industry, we need to make sure that 5G technology offers the right tenets to serve these use cases flexibly and profitably."

Samsung

"Samsung is fully committed to the research and development of 5G technology, as evident by the recent success of our development and feasibility verification of the millimeter-wave cellular prototype," said ChangYeong Kim, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics and Head of Digital Media & Communications (DMC) R&D Center. "As part of our ongoing efforts in the standardization and commercialization of 5G mobile communications, we are very excited to collaborate with DOCOMO and expect to see considerable synergy in the partnership."

Details of 5G experimental trials

Image of details of 5G experimental trials

About NTT DOCOMO

NTT DOCOMO provides innovative, convenient and secure mobile services that enable smarter living for each customer. The company serves over 63 million mobile customers in Japan via advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide 3G network and one of the world's first commercial LTE networks. Leveraging its unique capabilities as a mobile operator, DOCOMO is a leading developer of cutting-edge technologies for NFC mobile payments, mobile GPS, mobile TV, intuitive mobile assistance, environmental monitoring, smart grids and much more. Overseas, the company provides technical and operational expertise to eight mobile operators and other partner companies. NTT DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo (9437) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. Please visit https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/ for more information.

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