Evolution to 5G: SoftBank, Ericsson to demonstrate 5G in 28GHz mmWave

Ericsson and SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., are moving to the next step of a 5G trial that started in August 2016.

Then, a comprehensive 5G trial included base stations and user equipment with control signal feedback using mid-band spectrum at 4.5 GHz, which is now one of the future candidate bands for 5G services in Japan.

After the successful completion of 4.5GHz and 15GHz spectrum on basic 5G trials in Tokyo in 2016, the two companies are now proceeding with more advanced tests.

The coming 5G trial will be conducted both in indoor and outdoor trial environments covering both device mobility and stationary tests. The trial will utilize Ericsson's mmWave 28GHz 5G Test Bed solution, which includes base stations and device prototypes and will showcase advanced 5G technologies including Massive-MIMO, Massive Beamforming, Distributed MIMO, Multi-user MIMO and Beam Tracking together with multi-gigabit data rates and ultra-low latency which are becoming key requirements for future consumer mobile broadband and industrial use-cases.

Hideyuki Tsukuda, Senior Vice President, SoftBank Corp., says: "SoftBank started to verify 4.5GHz radio back in August 2016 and now 4.5GHz is becoming the leading candidate band for 5G services in Japan together with 28GHz. We are leveraging Ericsson's Test Bed with 28GHz radio to validate a lot of advanced features at super low-latency and high throughput, which helps position us as a pioneer of 5G."

Mikael Eriksson, Head of Ericsson Japan, says: "Since we announced that we would start the joint 5G trial with SoftBank in Tokyo in 2015, we have together achieved several significant milestones to date. I am confident that we will be the first to deliver 5G services and that we will deliver the best performing end to end network in Japan."