STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has been selected by communications service provider KDDI as the primary 5G vendor for next-generation network deployment in Japan. KDDI expects the first commercial live 5G services to be available from March 2020, with more than 93 percent coverage of 5G base station areas specified by Japan’s telecom regulation body by the end of March 2025.

Under the agreement, Ericsson will supply KDDI with Radio Access Network equipment, including products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio. These will allow KDDI to maximize its spectrum assets and enable the service provider to roll out commercial 5G services in several parts of Japan on their sub-6GHz and 28GHz bands for 5G New Radio (NR). KDDI’s selection of Ericsson as a 5G vendor follows nearly four years of close collaboration on 5G between the companies.

Chris Houghton, Senior Vice President, Head of Market Area North East Asia, Ericsson, says: “Having established our important partnership with KDDI in 2013, we have now expanded our collaboration efforts. We are excited about our involvement in KDDI’s 5G network buildout, which will provide a sound basis for our future collaboration as well as allowing our partner to offer users a whole new generation of mobile services.”

Japan’s telecom regulation body, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, allocated spectrum to communication service providers KDDI, SoftBank, NTT DOCOMO, and Rakuten in April 2019 in preparation for the 2020 launch of 5G services. The government ministry expressed its hope that the telecom industry would build 5G infrastructure on a broad scale, extending well beyond major cities into rural areas. KDDI reportedly aims to achieve 93.2 percent coverage of the 5G specified base station areas in Japan by the end of March 2025. KDDI and Ericsson have carried out a large number of joint tests across a wide range of 5G use cases on the 4.5GHz and 28GHz frequency bands, including the interworking between 5G and LTE.

The two companies have been collaborating on 5G since November 25, 2015, when they announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the evolution of the latest mobile technology.

In a separate release:

ESPOO, Finland – KDDI Corporation, a leading telecoms company in Japan, has selected Nokia as a primary partner to upgrade its 4G network to 5G with Nokia’s industry-leading radio access solution AirScale, which supports both 4G and 5G operations. This will allow KDDI to modernize its 4G network and meet the growing consumer and industrial demands for 5G.

The contract for 5G radio re-enforces the strong relationship between the two companies, which dates back over two decades. Nokia is an existing supplier to KDDI across multiple technologies, including radio, fixed networks, mobile core network and multiple software solutions. The 5G network will support KDDI across both cmWave and mmWave 5G frequency bands and can be deployed in both distributed and centralized architectures.

The network will be deployed across Japan and will deliver enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to consumers and enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC) enabling multiple new applications and services for industries in the 5G era. The network architecture will also be transformed to enable 5G Ultra Reliable Low Latency Connectivity (URLLC).

John Harrington, Head of Nokia Japan, said: “This deal will allow KDDI to get ready for the 5G era and we are honoured and excited to continue our long-term relationship. As an end-to-end supplier of multiple technologies to KDDI, we look forward to transforming the network and launching 5G for consumers and industries.”

Nokia currently has 48 global 5G commercial contracts, including live networks in the US, Latin America, Europe, Korea and Australia. Our track record of providing the world’s best performing 4G networks (according to RootMetrics 1H2019 study - https://www.nokia.com/blog/nokia-gains-top-network-performance-rootscores-again/), reflects well in our 5G commercial success. In fact, all our LTE customers that announced 5G plans have continued with us, showing their faith in the power of Nokia’s end-to-end portfolio.

In a separate release:

SEOUL -- Samsung Electronics today announced it has been selected by Japanese telecommunications operator KDDI to provide 5G network solutions for KDDI’s 5G commercial service launch. The companies will join forces to complete the network roll-out, with commercial service expected to begin in March 2020.

Samsung Networks will provide KDDI with its latest 5G network solutions, including various radio base stations supporting mid-band (3.7~3.8GHz and 4.0~4.1GHz) and mmWave (28GHz) spectrum, as well as virtualized RAN.

Japan is home to one of the world’s most densely populated areas, numerous skyscrapers and a complex infrastructure. Its largest cities are examples of dense metropolitan areas that present technical challenges that need to be addressed when deploying 5G networks using both mid-band and mmWave. This includes the need for operators to ensure seamless and reliable service quality in these dense areas.

KDDI and Samsung have successfully proved that 5G can be implemented in dense metropolitan cities since 2015 using Samsung’s end-to-end 5G solutions. In preparation for the arrival of 5G, the two companies have carried out several successful trials on real-world use cases and achieved world-first 5G milestones. This includes Japan’s first mmWave outdoor 5G handover test success in 2017, 5G handovers for high-speed racing cars and trains in 2017, a real-time free-viewpoint video stream at baseball stadium in 2018, a 5G-powered education showcase in an elementary school in 2019, and a demonstration of the power of real-time 4K video communication at Haneda Airport, Tokyo in 2019. (The two companies have been collaborating for nearly two decades since 2002.)

Samsung has successfully provided end-to-end 5G solutions to the world’s first 5G commercial networks in Korea and U.S. where mobile services for consumers have started in the first half of 2019. It included an in-house chipset, radio base stations, core, virtualized solution and smartphones – all supporting mmWave spectrum and mid-band spectrum.

KDDI Corp.
Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC)