According to Nikkei News, Japan plans to build a wide-area test network as early as 2022 to conduct 5G Open RAN tests. The report said the plan was led by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Japan's leading communications company. NTT DoCoMo, Rakuten Mobile and NECh are expected to participate in the test.
Japanese regulator believes that Open RAN will reduce costs and make Japanese companies more competitive than Chinese companies.
reported that as part of the plan, the Japanese government designated Yokosuka Research Park in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo as a pilot area where NTT Docomo and Rakuten conducted Open RAN tests. Japan's headquarters province said that by April 2024, Japan's four major telecom operators will be able to launch 5G base stations nationwide.
Japanese operator NTT Docomo and supplier NEC recently completed 5G SA interoperability tests using 5G base station baseband units (5G CU/DU) that comply with O-RAN open interface specifications and radio frequency units (RUs) from other vendors.
NEC said that this multi-vendor interoperability test uses a software upgrade, introducing SA capabilities to NEC 5G NSA CU/DUs running on NTT Docomo commercial networks. In the future, the two companies plan to introduce 5G CU/DU for NTT Docomo's SA service to further expand their 5G services.
Earlier this year, NTT Docomo chose Samsung as its 5G networking solution provider. Samsung will specifically support the operator's next phase of Open RAN development.
In 2018, NTT DoCoMo and AT&Th, China Mobile, Deutsche Telecom and Orange announced to become O-RAN alliances, aiming to promote the RAN of the next generation of wireless systems to a new level. In February this year, the operator took another step in its commitment to building the Open RAN ecosystem. At that time, NTT DoCoMo announced its cooperation with 12 companies to move towards the "5G Open RAN ecosystem", with the goal of accelerating the development of Open RAN globally.
At the same time, Rakuten Mobile has previously signed two different agreements with Fujitsu and NEC to jointly develop and promote Open RAN solutions for global markets.
Rakuten Mobile and Fujitsu said they will collaborate on developing 4G and 5G Open RAN solutions. Fujitsu will develop new O-RAN-based 4G and 5G radio frequency units, which Rakuten Mobile will integrate into its Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) products with the goal of expanding in the global market. The two companies noted that the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties will enable them to develop a global joint listing plan to meet the current and future needs of global 4G and 5G Open RAN customers.
Rakuten Mobile also announced a memorandum of understanding with NEC, both companies wanting to promote Open RAN technology globally. (Ace)
