SoftBank has received an experimental license to conduct tests on the 28GHz frequency band, a candidate for 5G in Japan.
SoftBank has already acquired experimental licenses to test on both the 4GHz and 4.5GHz bands, which are also frequency band candidates for 5G, and it began conducting 5G field trials in August 2016.
| Trial frequencies | Frequency band | Bandwidth | License acquisition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4GHz band | 100MHz | January 2017 | |
| 4.5GHz band | 200MHz | August 2016 | |
| 28GHz band | 732MHz | March 2017 (new) |
SoftBank said that it will commence indoor and outdoor trials in Tokyo Waterfront City (Daiba District) using the spectrum with a view to future commercial deployment.
By proceeding with trials on these candidate bands and on the newly added 28GHz candidate band, and through the accumulation of know-how to implement 5G, SoftBank aims to launch 5G commercial services around 2020.
The trials will evaluate the characteristics of radio wave propagation on the 4GHz, 4.5GHz and 28GHz bands respectively. They will be conducted in indoor and outdoor environments using trial equipment mounted with 5G technology elements to verify Massive MIMO, new air interfaces and other aspects, with a view to testing for 5G specification targets: ultra-speed broadband communications exceeding 10Gbps, ultra-low latency communications under 1ms, among others.
