Nokia and NTT Team Up for 5G Testing

Nokia (News - Alert) and Japan’s biggest mobile operator, NTT DOCOMO, have signed an agreement supplying 5G baseband products to be deployed in a 5G mobile network. The mobile network is aimed for commercial service by 2020.

NTT (News - Alert) DOCOMO’s mobile customers will experience high speed, superior capacity, and ultra-low latency thanks to Nokia’s 5G support. Nokia will help ease NTT into higher speeds from 4G/LTE (News - Alert) as the two have had a long-term service relationship. The two have collaborated from 3G to 4G as well as trials during the latest evolution in LTE speed.

Hiroshi Nakamura, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NTT DOCOMO noted, "We have been collaborating with partners such as Nokia on various 5G technology and use case trials since 2014. With this agreement with Nokia, we are now proceeding to the next step to launch 5G mobile services by 2020, and accelerate co-creation of new services and businesses with vertical industry partners."

Last week, ZTE CEO Lixin Cheng announced that the Chinese smartphone producers hoped to release the first 5G smartphone in the United States by the end of this year, early 2019. AT&T (News - Alert) also shared plans for 5G phone services in about a dozen cities. Right now, it is a race to see who can get to 5G the fastest with Nokia and NTT published the first stage of testing Q4 2017.

Nokia technology is 3 GPP-compliant with over 50 customer trials occurring globally. Between 2019 and 2020, 5G is expected to launch commercially from the company while working closely with chipset and device developers.

Are you ready for 5G?