China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo and KT announced that they will conduct a three-way 5G technical collaboration in an attempt to accelerate 5G commercial deployments and drive standardization efforts.
Under the new agreement, China Mobile, DoCoMo and KT will elaborate and integrate 5G requirements, particularly in the Asian market.
The three Asian cellcos will explore new services and vertical markets enabled by 5G, jointly identify 5G key technologies and prove the validity of system concepts.
The operators will also work with global organizations such as ITU, 3GPP, GSMA, NGMN and GTI to facilitate global harmonized spectrum planning and a unified global 5G standard, the companies said in a joint statement.
The agreement, signed by the companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona yesterday, is an extension of a partnership covering 4G activities.
China Mobile, DoCoMo and KT have been closely cooperating in mobile services - such as international LTE roaming and mutual content distribution between the three countries - since they formed a three-way business collaboration in 2011.