Japan's NTT DoCoMo has contracted Nokia to supply 5G baseband products to support the operator's goal of commercially deploying a 5G network by 2020.
Under the deal, Nokia will integrate its 5G new radio based AirScale hardware into Nokia's network and further enhancing existing baseband units.
DoCoMo and Nokia have been collaborating closely on 5G trials and have now agreed on supply of Nokia 5G baseband units to support centralized management for 5G remote radio heads, supporting the evolution of the DoCoMo network from LTE to 5G.
“We have been collaborating with partners such as Nokia on various 5G technology and use case trials since 2014. With this agreement with Nokia, we are now proceeding to the next step to launch 5G mobile services by 2020, and accelerate co-creation of new services and businesses with vertical industry partners,” DoCoMo CTO Hiroshi Nakamura said.
Nokia is currently focused on applying the 3GPP-compliant 5G new radio standard in customer trials ahead of expected commercial launches between 2019 and 2020. The first stage of the 5G new radio standard was published in late 2017.