News
Issue #2003 - 18 (June 2003)
(Updated June 4, 2003)

INFRASTRUCTURE, PRODUCTS & SERVICES

NTT DoCoMo Starts Trial of 4G

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company has begun constructing an experimental system for fourth-generation (4G) packet wireless communications featuring transmission speeds in excess of 100 mega-bit per second (Mbps) downlinks and 20 Mbps uplinks.

The experimental system, which will incorporate base station and mobile station equipment, will demonstrate key technologies for a 4G wireless communications system that NTT DoCoMo hopes to launch commercially by 2010.

4G communications will feature extremely high-quality video equal to that of high-definition television, or more than double the resolution of conventional analog television. In addition, it will enable wireless downloads at speeds exceeding 100 Mbps, about 260 times faster than DoCoMo's recently introduced 3G wireless network.

During summer this year, DoCoMo will begin practical evaluations of key technologies for its 4G packet wireless communications system, as well as implement the experimental system to demonstrate their benefits.

A 4G wireless system offering high-speed transmission of large-capacity data requires a bandwidth of approximately 100 MHz. When using a channel with such a broad bandwidth, however, transmission quality can be impaired by multipath, the occurrence of a large number of secondary signals reflected off buildings, mountains and other surrounding objects. NTT DoCoMo's experimental 4G system employs variable spreading factor (VSF) and orthogonal frequency code division multiplexing (OFCDM) technologies to mitigate the impact of severe multipath interference and thereby achieve a broad-bandwidth, large-capacity wireless system available on a nationwide basis.

About NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company with more than 40 million customers. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-modeR, the world's most popular mobile internet service, which provides e-mail and internet access to over 31 million subscribers, and , launched in 2001 as the world's first 3G mobile service. In addition to wholly owned subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and Brazil, the company is expanding its global reach through strategic joint ventures and other alliances with mobile and multimedia service providers in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America. 

For more information: http://www.3g.co.uk

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: At this stage, definition of 4G is not clear in terms of its network architecture, underlying technologies to be exploited, frequency band that would be allocated by regulators and bandwidth that might be required to support future applications. However, the carriers must pilot more advanced wireless network technologies for future. DoCoMo is further ahead than anybody else in this direction. It is fitting for it to move this technology from the lab environment to an external setting, even though it may be localized in scope.  

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